The US Troops Who Will Remain in Afghanistan

The U.S. will slow the pace of its troop drawdown in Afghanistan, leaving 8,400 troops there when President Barack Obama completes his term, Obama announced Wednesday in a blunt acknowledgment that America will remain entangled there despite his aspirations to end the war.

“While I believe conditions on the ground warranted retaining the current force level, the decision to retain 8,400 USA troops in Afghanistan into next year is certainly preferable to cutting those forces by almost half”, McCain said in a statement Wednesday.

“I will not allow Afghanistan to be used as safe haven for terrorists to attack our nation again”. And he says Afghan security forces are not as strong as they need to be. Instead, some 10,000 US troops are still in Afghanistan. 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.

The numbers reflect a compromise between Mr. Obama’s original plan and what many military commanders had recommended.

Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, said the number of troops Obama announced was based on recommendations from military commanders in Afghanistan. Last month, a group of more than a dozen former USA ambassadors and commanders in Afghanistan urged him to “freeze” the current level of 9,800 for the rest of his presidency and let the next president make adjustments.

In prepared remarks from the Roosevelt Room, where he was accompanied by Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Joint Chiefs Chairman, Obama said, ‘It has been continually my belief that it is up to Afghans to defend their country.

Obama announced that he would again slow the USA withdrawal from the country, where Afghan government forces are struggling to take and keep territory from the Taliban.

Mr Obama’s announcement will help shape his legacy. A president who came into office promising to end the wars he inherited, has instead found himself wrestling with continued conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan and new hostilities in Syria and Libya. In Kabul, spokesman Haroon Chankhansuri called the decision “a sign of continued partnership between our nations to fight our common enemy and strengthen regional stability”.

‘Because we have emphasized training and their capabilities, we’ve been able to end our major ground war there and bring 90 percent of our troops back home’. At the peak, in 2010, USA troop levels surged to 100,000.

Last month a group of more than a dozen former U.S. ambassadors and former commanders of USA forces in Afghanistan wrote to Obama urging him to keep the current level of United States troops through the remainder of his term in office.

The president acknowledged this morning that the next Oval Office occupant will be left with the Middle East mess as he stated his belief that keeping a higher than anticipated number of troops in the country “best positions” his successor ‘to make future decisions about Afghanistan.

He added, “We can’t forget what’s at stake in Afghanistan”.

In May of 2014, Obama said the troop presence would be reduced from 32,000 to 9,800 by the end of that year.