“I$3 welcome President Obama’s decision on keeping 8,400 troops” in Afghanistan, said Ghani in a message posted on his official Twitter account on Wednesday. But a Taliban resurgence has led Washington to rethink its exit strategy.
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“To go from 9,800 to 8,400 is a cut that makes no sense politically, strategically, or militarily”, Donnelly told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. A senior administration official said the decision on US troop levels “will be welcomed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies”.
The last time Mr. Obama gave a statement on Afghanistan from the White House, he announced that the USA would slow the pace of its troop draw-down in the country. According to media reports, hundreds of people in the eastern province of Nangarhar have been displaced after days of heavy fighting between IS jihadists and government troops.
The U.S. now has around 9,800 troops in the country. “We resolve to carry on the mission for which they gave their last full measure of devotion, the president said”.
Even at the reduced level, the US forces will be able to advise Afghan forces in the field at the two- and three-star level, the officials said. “Our resolve is high and our determination is firm”.
Mr. Obama said the decision, which will reduce the US force from the current 9,800 troops, won’t alter the soldiers’ narrow missions of training and advising Afghan security forces, and waging counterterrorism operations.
“In short, even as we’ve maintained a relentless, you know, case against those who are threatening us, we are no longer engaged in a major ground war in Afghanistan”. At the peak, in 2010, US troop levels surged to 100,000. He said he made the decision after consultations with Lt. Gen. John Nicholson, commander of USA forces in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and other military chiefs. “Nevertheless, the security situation in Afghanistan remains precarious”.
The tone of that comment contrasted with the President’s repeated vows to end the Afghan war, including a declaration in December 2014 at the end of us combat operations that “the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion”.
The U.S. troops in Afghanistan, operating under the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation banner, mostly work as trainers or advisers to Afghan forces.
172-a-13-(President Barack Obama, speaking to reporters)-“as it evolves”-President Obama says keeping more troops in Afghanistan puts the next president in the best position to chart the future course of the USA mission there”. A president who came into office promising to end the wars he inherited, has instead found himself wrestling with continued conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan and new conflicts in Syria and Libya.
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At the press conference. Last month, the alliance announced it would maintain troops in regional locations around Afghanistan.
