WASHINGTON: A US Senator, who plans to contest the 2020 presidential election against Donald Trump, has said she supports withdrawing Ameri­can troops from military engagements in Syria and Afghanistan.

“I think it is right to get our troops out of Syria and let me add, I think it is right to get our troops out of Afghanistan,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Mas­sachusetts Democrat who declared last week that she plans to run against Pres­ident Trump in 2020. As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee already, Senator Warren already has a say in military matters.

President Trump and senior officials of his administration announced recently that they planned to withdraw all US troops from Syria and half of the 14,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan.

Senator Warren’s rema­rks, made during an interview to MSNBC television this week, shows that the pressure for pulling out troops from Afghanistan is being felt in both Republi­can and Democratic parties.

Although known for her strong criticism of President Trump and his views, Ms Warren refused to condemn his decision to withdraw troops from warzones.

“I think that everybody who keeps saying, ‘No, no, no, we can’t do that (withdraw troops),’ in the defence establishment needs to explain what they think winning in those wars [looks] like and where the metrics are,” she said.

But the US lawmaker disagreed with President Tru­mp’s abrupt announcements on such sensitive issues, saying policies shouldn’t be conducted via Twitter.

“We actually need to plan this out and talk about it with our allies, how we ens­ure more safety and stability in the region,” she said.

Observers in Washington say that the Afghan war has become so unpopular in the United States that no American politician would like to advocate keeping troops there. And the talk of recalling troops from Afgha­nistan would grow louder when the election campaign starts later this year.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2019