Obama said this was “the right thing to do”. Pentagon pessimists see the decision as only pushing Afghanistan’s current instability into the next Administration, but unlikely to result in any substantial change on the ground.
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US General John Campbell (4L) lowers the flag of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) during a ceremony marking the end of ISAF’s combat mission in Afghanistan at ISAF headquarters in Kabul on December 28, 2014. The more hopeful among them believe the continued training that the increased USA troops will provide could turn the tide against the Taliban.
U.S. Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Wednesday made the following statement after President Obama announced his decision to maintain 8,400 U.S. forces in Afghanistan through the end of the year.
Obama’s decision comes after General John Nicholson, the new commander of the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation mission in Afghanistan, this year conducted a review of the security situation.
The much slower-than-expected retreat from the current total of 9,800 USA forces in Afghanistan comes amid a deteriorating security situation that the president warned could overwhelm Afghan government partners without further assistance.
Without naming Pakistan, Obama called on countries in the region to end all terrorist safe havens in the region.
President Obama delivers a statement on the deployment of USA troops in Afghanistan.
The Taliban said the USA action would only prolong the war.
“What Obama could not do with 149,000 troops, he will not be able to do with 8,400 troops”, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said on Twitter.
The president said the U.S.is “no longer engaged in a major ground war”, and insisted the mission remains narrowly focused on “training and advising” Afghan forces and counterterrorism operations against the remnants of al-Qaida.
Obama said his decision is based on ground realities and reviews with national security team, including the United States commanders in Afghanistan. Although he’s declared US combat operations over in both countries, the U.S.is still deep in conflict in both, plus major new fighting that has emerged in Syria and Libya since he took office.
Republican leaders in Congress who favor a larger force said Obama’s new plan was preferable to the old one, but they criticized him for not keeping the full 9,800. Sen. At the peak, in 2010, US troop levels surged to 100,000.
Obama’s announcement is further acknowledgement that Afghan security forces, who took charge of the country’s security in 2015, are still not ready to go it alone. Last month, Obama sent a report on USA troop levels to Congress under the War Powers Resolution. Obama also pointed out that 38 Americans had died in the past 18 months.
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Originally he had planned to drop troop levels to 5,500 by the end of the year.
