What Happened On Aug. 29, President Donald Trump, who has made clear his interest in ending the U.S. involvement in the war in Afghanistan, said that 8,600 U.S. troops would remain in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future before the United States decides what path a further withdrawal from its long involvement in the war there will take. Trump’s comments come as U.S. and Taliban representatives in Doha, Qatar, are in the middle of a ninth round of peace talks, but the broad outlines of a deal have reportedly been agreed upon. The 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, joined by 8,000 NATO and allied nation forces, serve in complementary missions focusing on counterterrorism and training to support the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces against the Taliban's insurgency.