With an initial troop presence of more than 100,000 in Afghanistan, Obama gradually reduced forces to 9,800 after taking office in 2009.
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“This is this administration pushing this off to the next administration because the next time they have to make this decision, it will be a different president in the White House”, Francona said.
USA and global soldiers, including the 6,000 troops that are part of the “Resolute Support” mission, began withdrawing from the country towards the end of previous year, but their Afghan counterparts have struggled to keep the Taliban at bay. Under the new plan, troops will be drawn down to 5,500 starting sometime in 2017 and will be based at four locations – Kabul, Bagram, Jalalabad and Kandahar.
Afghan security forces have been unable to operate the advanced weaponry obtained through USA aid and still largely depend on US air power for cover. The former Florida governor did not say how many troops he thought would be sufficient.
According to a defense official, the president approved the highest number requested by commanders, with the greatest amount of flexibility.
The top USA commander in the country, Gen. John Campbell, recently presented Obama with a range of options calling for keeping more troops there, based on his judgment of what it would take to sustain the Afghan army and minimize the chances of losing more ground.
President Obama said American forces will be stationed at key bases.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was an outlier among Republican candidates.
In a sharp reversal from the plan he shared past year, President Obama on Thursday said he was backing off his pledge to end the war in Afghanistan, which has killed more than 2,300 Americans, wounded another 20,071, and has cost approximately $110 billion since it started in October 2001.
“The new government in Afghanistan proved to be very cooperative, very positive”, Dobbins said of President Ashraf Ghani, the successor to Hamid Karzai, who “had become a more hard partner”.
The move also comes after criticism that by drawing down troops in Iraq, the US left the country vulnerable to ISIS, which exploded internationally after seizing large areas of Iraq and Syria. During the battle a USA airstrike mistakenly targeted a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders, killing 12 of the organization’s staff and 10 patients.
“I suspect that we will continue to evaluate this going forward, as will the next president”, Mr Obama said.
Ghani welcomed the decision, saying it sent a message to the Taliban and terrorist groups that their actions “will produce no result other than defeat”.
Officials said the drawdown to 5,500 would begin late next year or in early 2017, with the pace determined by military commanders. They said North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies had expressed support for extending the troop presence in Afghanistan, but they did not outline any specific commitments from other nations.
The US troops will continue to train and advise Afghan forces, and also will focus on ensuring that any remnants of al Qaeda are prevented from posing a threat to USA security, the officials said.
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Last year’s change in Afghan leadership also likely buoyed Obama’s inclination to stay. “He’s now had to walk that back and says there is no clock”, Jones said, “The story of what the Islamic State has done in Iraq and Syria is a cautionary tale to how the Iraq war ended, compared to how the war in Afghanistan could end”.
