“The narrative that we’re leaving Afghanistan is self-defeating”, said Carter at the Association of the U.S. Army, USA Today reports. “And as our coalition agreed, by the end of 2014 the Afghans will be fully responsible for the security of their country”.
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“President Obama needs to finally lay out the broad, overarching strategy needed to defeat our terrorist enemies and protect the United States”, Boehner said in a statement.
U.S. military and administration officials have been discussing a slower timetable since the March visit to the White House of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, the officials said.
Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer said Thursday that history won’t be kind to President Barack Obama’s handling of the wars in the Middle East.
Addressing battle-weary troops who may now be forced to return for another tour of duty, Obama said they could “make a real difference” to stabilising a strategic partner.
“I suspect that we will continue to evaluate this going forward, as will the next president”, Mr Obama said.
And although Obama said Thursday that he was opposed to “endless war”, Americans can be excused for wondering whether the US military presence in Afghanistan that began in 2001 will ever end.
But he praised the USA announcement, calling it “a positive message as an ally of Afghanistan in the fight against terror”. Young says Obama is right to heed commanders instead of what he charges was a politically motivated timeline.
But while Republicans were pleased, the decision to keep a significant force in Afghanistan represents a major setback for Obama. In recent weeks, the White House had been examining options offered by Gen. John Campbell, the top US commander in Afghanistan.
Obama had previously aimed to withdraw all but a small U.S. Embassy-based force in Kabul before he leaves office in January 2017.
Rainer Arnold, a Social Democrat member of the parliamentary defense committee, said that Germany could turn its military base in the northern town of Masar-i-Sharif into an “anchor of stability” for the entire north of the country.
In fact, as the American Enterprise Institute’s Frederick Kagan writes, “There was no meaningful al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan when Barack Obama took office”. Under the new plan, US counterterrorism forces deployed at bases in Kandahar and Jalalabad and the Bagram air base outside Kabul will be able to target those threats, while USA advisers can continue to work with key Afghan units, such as air and special forces, to blunt Taliban attacks. The announcement follows a series of setbacks, including a U.S. air strike on October 3 on a hospital in Kunduz run by Doctors Without Borders that killed at least 14 staff and 10 patients, with nine others still unaccounted for.
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Officials 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.
