“I think to our effort, had we done it differently we would be in a lot better shape today”.
Advertisement
Originally all except a small embassy-based force were due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2016.
President Barack Obama on Thursday announced thousands of USA troops will remain in Afghanistan past 2016, retreating from a major campaign pledge and acknowledging Afghan forces are not ready to stand alone.
“I know many of you have grown tired of this conflict”, Obama said to the American people.
On Thursday, leading Democratic candidates were silent about the president’s decision, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, who served as Obama’s secretary of state.
Mr. Obama is clearly concerned with his legacy and is extending the period of exposure and cost of the US troop presence in Afghanistan to see that it doesn’t fall apart completely during his time in office. The former Florida governor did not say how many troops he thought would be sufficient. According to officials, commanders will decide the pace of the decreasing of numbers.
Mr. Obama’s government tried the same approach in Afghanistan. “I am extremely troubled by President Obama’s announcement that the US will abandon our planned military withdrawal from Afghanistan”.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was an outlier among Republican candidates.
The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Gen John Campbell, expressed concern last week over the “tenuous security situation” and said an enhanced military presence would be necessary if the Taliban were to be repelled. And past leaders in Afghanistan and Iraq have been less than reliable.
While Obama is resisting a no-fly zone and ground troops seem out of the question, the US did start this week airdropping weapons to Kurdish militias battling al-Qaida.
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 24.
Carson and Congressman Todd Young (R-9th) agree a pullout would be inviting a Taliban takeover, though Young says the original withdrawal plan is partly to blame.
While we don’t relish the idea of keeping United States of America troops on the ground in Afghanistan longer than necessary, we respect the president’s initiative to change strategy in midstream, and to provide strength to Afghan troops fighting so bravely against the Taliban, which have made significant gains in recent months.
Even though Obama went to great lengths to emphasise that there will be no change in the scope of the mission – training and support – the decision to stay behind is a prudent one. The decision was welcomed by the Afghanistan officials as they said it showed commitment and honesty of their global partners to fight insurgency. The USA decision neither ends in the favour of Afghanistan nor will it stop the Taliban’s “jihad” (holy war) against occupation forces in the country, the statement added.
Advertisement
By March 2015, the administration had given up on the first part of the plan, opting instead to maintain 9,800 troops through year’s end.
