Pentagon Backs Obama on Troops Prolong Plan

But he announced Thursday he’ll keep 5,500 troops in Afghanistan through the end of his term.

“I believe this mission is vital to our national security interests in preventing terrorist attacks against our citizens and our nation”, Obama said at the White House, flanked by his Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford, and Vice President Joe Biden. Troops would remain out of combat roles, focused on training and advising Afghan forces, and ensuring that any al Qaeda remnants do not threaten USA security, he said.

But the U.S. military says more troops will be needed to help Afghan forces counter a growing Taliban threat.

The decision comes as the situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate, highlighted by the Taliban’s takeover of the city of Kunduz last month.

Ghani has been more supportive of the USA presence than his predecessor, Hamid Karzai, who left office previous year.

However, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson said that they will continue their fight against foreign forces until they leave the country.

The White House said the change came after months of discussions with Afghanistan’s president.

USA troops are not in a position to “patrol the valleys of Afghanistan in search of Taliban insurgents”, Earnest said, but are building the capacity of Afghan forces to protect their country.

Today, President Obama announced that he will keep 5,500 troops in Afghanistan through the rest of his presidency into 2017.

The 5,500 troops will be stationed in Jalalabad, Kandahar, Kabul and Bagram. He did not specifically mention Iraq, where a full troop withdrawal has been followed by a surge in violence from the Islamic State.

The top United States 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. “We’ve made an enormous investment in a stable Afghanistan…This modest but meaningful extension of our progress-while sticking to our current, narrow missions-can make a real difference”.

Also in a statement, Graham called Obama’s decision one “that will require our men and women in uniform to accept an incredibly high risk, with little support, simply because he’s the president who promised to end wars”.

He noted Americans have “grown weary” of the war and that he opposes open-ended wars, but said that “given what’s at stake in Afghanistan”, he is convinced the effort will be worth it.

“A lot of it’s the fact that it’s the terrain and the makeup of the people that are there that are very independent and are interested in fighting whatever government that they have”, Robinette said.