Welcome to the Empire Files podcast. This is your host, Abby Martin. This is the audio of our show.

You can watch the episodes on our YouTube channel or at the Empirefiles.tv.

This is Abby Martin with your Empire Update, wrapping up the last week of U.S. imperialism.

After hyping up for four years that all troops would be removed from Afghanistan,

the Trump administration finally revealed their grand plan, to only withdraw less than half of all

U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan and a minuscule 500 troops from Iraq, bringing U.S. occupation

numbers to around 2,500 in each country. U.S. troops have been occupying Afghanistan for nearly

20 years, and U.S. forces are in Iraq

in defiance of millions of protesters calling for their expulsion since the illegal invasion

until today. Moreover, what about the thousands of private mercenaries that remain in both countries?

See, Trump increased these killer contractor numbers by 65%.

And right now, there are actually more mercenaries in both countries than there are troops.

This was his plan all along to privatize the war and make it even less accountable than it already was.

Once this new round of troops leave, that could very well mean even more contractors take their place.

And remember, thousands of troops will still remain. Any amount is a crime. But 2,500 is actually a lot.

The ironic thing about this grand finale announcement by Trump is it's basically the Obama-Biden plan for Iraq and Afghanistan. Withdrawing more

regular troops to rely primarily on special ops CIA and bombings is exactly what the Obama administration

wanted. It only took Trump four years to arrive at the exact same policy. And a big problem with

leaving a small number of troops anywhere is that it can easily

become a large number of troops all over again. Just as Trump ramped up the residual forces

Obama left, he leaves the same for Biden to do too. Our next update is yet another totally overblown and misreported story on troop withdrawals.

You may have heard it either celebrated or condemned that Trump is bringing all the troops home from Somalia.

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