Whatever the hopes of a full USA withdrawal, it now looks as though Washington is set to have a continuing military commitment to Afghanistan, where United States air power in particular plays an essential role.
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US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Thursday that he believes North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies will renew or adjust their contributions to the US-led coalition as Washington extends its mission.
President Barack Obama’s decision to drop plans for a radical reduction in USA forces next year was greeted with relief by the administration in Kabul, which had feared being abandoned by its most powerful ally.
Recent intense fighting has underscored the continued role of USA troops in training the still fledgling Afghan forces and in vital counterterror operations. “We’ve made an enormous investment in a stable Afghanistan”, Obama said.
The Taliban brushed aside a USA decision to delay withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, saying it would do nothing to save an “unwinnable war” and promising to step up its campaign against the Western-backed government in Kabul. Obama is expected to make an announcement in this regard later today.
“Most of these conflicts end by one side winning and the other side losing”, says Harvey Weinbaum, a scholar at the Middle East Institute and a former State Department Afghanistan analyst. “They’re not looking for us to do it for them”.
“We anticipate that there will be additional North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops remaining in the country in that time period”, Miller said. Whether keeping a residual U.S. force in Iraq would have made a difference is a point of contention, but the president chose not to take a chance this time.
By leaving a larger military force in the country than anticipated, the US could actually help drive the Taliban to an agreement at the negotiating table – talks that so far have ended in stalemate.
“While this new plan avoids a disaster, it is certainly not a plan for success”, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Clarendon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a prepared statement.
More USA troops will remain in Afghanistan.
“Every single day, Afghan forces are out there fighting and dying to protect their country”, Obama said. Four years ago, he stuck to his plan to pull out of Iraq, only to watch the country collapse back into sectarian strife and a renewed war with Islamic extremists.
“I suspect that we will continue to evaluate this going forward, as will the next president”, Mr Obama said.
Obama’s decision – announced in a televised address from the Roosevelt Room of the White House – means he bequeaths to his successor a 14-year war that he inherited from George W. Bush.
The next president will become the third US commander-in-chief to oversee the war, with the options of trying to bring it to a close, maintaining the presence as Obama left it or even ramping up USA involvement in the conflict.
Afghan Taliban signalled on Thursday their willingness to resume dialogue for a political settlement of the conflict in Afghanistan, but insisted that their conditions for the withdrawal of foreign forces and establishment of an Islamic government should be met for the process to start.
The president’s decision was reinforced when Taliban fighters took control of the key northern city of Kunduz late last month, leading to a protracted battle with Afghan forces supported by USA airstrikes.
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She added that advancing the peace process was likely a “main driving factor” behind the decision to bolster the U.S.’s longer-term troop presence in Afghanistan.
