Obama now faces the prospect of passing on to his successor active USA military missions in two countries he vowed to withdraw from: Iraq and Afghanistan.
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In his remarks, the president had a message for the Taliban and other extremist groups in announcing the delay in US troop withdrawal.
“As commander in chief, I will not allow Afghanistan to be used as a safe haven for terrorists to attack our nation again”, he said in a televised address.
“If Obama has made this illogical decision because of the panic-stricken Kabul administration or because of any other compulsions, this will never end in favour of Afghanistan and the U.S. will keep suffering blows to its interests”.
But now, by late next year or early 2017 when Obama steps down and the 45th United States president is sworn in, their numbers are expected to remain at about 5,500.
The combat mission came to a symbolic conclusion in December 2014, when we last looked at this promise.
USA officials say Afghan President Ashraf Ghani asked Obama to keep the troops in his country when they met in Washington earlier this year.
“I do not send you into harm’s way lightly”, Obama said, addressing his remarks to the troops. (As Obama noted Thursday, 25 Americans have died in Afghanistan this year, compared with almost 500 in 2010.) These limits make it easier to accept Obama’s contention that thousands of US trainers and advisors need to remain in Afghanistan to protect America’s stake in the country and assist its struggling government.
Troops are needed to help Iraq fight the Islamic State – a misison the president says will likely outlast his presidency. It also comes on the heels of the Taliban’s first takeover of any Afghan city, at a time when “the security situation is still very fragile, and in a few places there is risk of deterioration”, Obama said.
He was speaking days after the Taliban briefly seized the northern city of Kunduz – their most spectacular military gain since being ousted from power in 2001. “We did a lot of homework on this”, said U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter at a briefing.
AFP adds from Kabul: The Taliban Thursday said their forces were prepared to keep fighting until American troops pull out of Afghanistan, after United States officials said they would extend their military presence in the country beyond 2016.
The president confidently said “It’s time to turn the page” on the conflict when he announced a staged troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in May 2014.
The announcement followed a series of setbacks, including a USA air strike on October 3 on a hospital in Kunduz run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) that killed at least 24.
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Ominously, Al Qaeda, too, has regained a foothold in Afghanistan, with American airstrikes hitting their training bases there just last week.
