Last month a group of more than a dozen former U.S. ambassadors and former commanders of United States forces in Afghanistan wrote to Mr Obama urging him to keep up the current level of USA troops through the rest of his term.
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Obama will leave office in January following presidential elections and he said he believes the move will leave his successor well placed to make continued progress in Afghanistan and fight terrorism.
Even with the “major ground war” over, US troops continue to die in combat.
Elected after vowing to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Obama has struggled to deliver a legacy of leaving the USA less encumbered by foreign conflicts than he found it.
He said boosting the planned troop numbers from the previous planned level would help allies prepare their own contribution to the fight. But a Taliban resurgence and the Afghan military’s continuing struggles have led Washington to rethink its exit strategy.
Since Obama announced an end to the war in Afghanistan in December 2014, 38 US soldiers have died in the country.
At the height of the 14-year war, there were 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan didn’t top 40,000 under Bush, who diverted military resources to the Iraq war beginning in 2003.
214-w-36-(Sagar Meghani (SAH’-gur meh-GAH’-nee), AP national security correspondent, with President Barack Obama)-President Barack Obama is again revising plans for bringing US troops home from Afghanistan.
In a statement at the White House, Mr Obama said he was acting after receiving recommendations from top military leaders who urged him to revise his earlier plan. The insurgency now occupies at least 20% of the country.
The president also signaled he would be willing to negotiate for a peace settlement with the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan prior to 2001. Now, Martin says, there will be US troops not just in Kabul and at the nearby air base of Bagram, but also in Kandahar to the south, and in Jalalabad to the east, and there will continue to be USA forces flying air strikes against the Taliban.
Obama spoke optimistically Wednesday.
In a statement at the White House, Obama said the security situation in Afghanistan is “precarious” and the Taliban remain a threat roughly 15 years after the US invaded in the aftermath of 9/11. The report cited progress in developing more capable Afghan security forces.
But others have a grimmer view of what is happening in Afghanistan. Last month the Pentagon told Congress that Afghans were feeling less secure than at any other recent time.
Insurgents have stepped up their almost 15-year war since North Atlantic Treaty Organisation pulled most of its forces out of the country at the end of 2014, while a nascent peace process has stalled in Afghanistan, which saw civilian casualties soar past 11,000 last year.
“The Taliban remains a threat”. They will achieve these objectives through increased insider attacks, assassination campaigns, and attacks against Western and diplomatic targets in Kabul City and beyond. “Taliban militants also seek to gain control of additional territory, for which they have already set conditions over the winter”.
Then there are the stray clues that things are not going well.
“And given the enormous challenges they face, the Afghan people will need the partnership of the world, led by the United States, for many years to come”.
U.S. forces have been in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion to oust the Taliban in late 2001.
Obama’s announcement in this regard came on the eve of his departure to Europe to attend a crucial North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit, wherein Afghanistan and the threat from Islamic State would be major topics of discussion. “We urge you to announce any changes to our current planned force levels ahead of the relevant North Atlantic Treaty Organisation conferences, giving the strongest consideration to the assessment of your military commanders and to conditions on the ground”, the 10 lawmakers said in a May letter. Arizona Sen. John McCain, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, said it was hard to see any rationale for withdrawing anyone given Obama’s concession about how risky Afghanistan still is.
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As part of current military plans, the United States will also maintain a series of bases across Afghanistan that will afford US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops greater reach into contested areas.
