now, president trump's ordering the defense department to also plan to pull 7,000 soldiers, nearly half the troops currently serving from afghanistan. also, against the collective counsel of his top military brass. >> if we leave 20 odd of the most dangerous terrorist groups in the world centered in that region, and we walk out of there, then we know what will happen. our intelligence services are very specific that we will be under attack in a number of years. >> the current contenders to replace general mattis at the pentagon include general jack keane, a fox news contributor, who has already intimated he's not interested in the job. senator tom cotton, a former army captain who served in iraq and afghanistan, and is opposed to pulling out of syria. and patrick shanahan, currently mattis' deputy and one of the lone supporters of president trump's space force which much of the pentagon opposed.