Obama Extends US Military Presence In Afghanistan

But, he conceded, despite the lack of a combat role, Americans will be exposed to danger.

“Sanctuaries for the Taliban and other terrorists must end”, Obama said.

Despite extensive and costly US training efforts, the Afghan military still can’t defend its own country. “If they were to fail, they would endanger the security of us all”.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was an outlier among Republican candidates.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., applauds the president’s decision but says more troops need to stay in the region.

During Obama’s 2008 and 2012 election campaigns he pledged to end the war that has now killed more than 2,000 Americans and injured or maimed tens of thousands more. This move is based on the recommendations of his top commanders.

In the end, however, the Taliban played a major role in deciding the issue. The Islamic radicals scored their biggest victory of the war last month by conquering the city of Kunduz, though they pulled out after two weeks. The United States troops will continue to train and advise Afghan forces, and also will focus on ensuring that any remnants of al Qaeda are prevented from posing a threat to USA security, the officials said.

“There is a resurgence of the Taliban after the death of Mullah Omar and they have galvanised around Mullah Mansour”, he added, referring to the group’s founder and its new leader.

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said following the announcement that he believed North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies will renew or adjust their contributions to the US-led coalition. But the Taliban remains strong, as it demonstrated last month with its capture of the provincial capital of Kunduz.

“Pressure from Pakistan has resulted in more Al Qaida coming into Afghanistan, and we have seen the emergence of an ISIL presence”.

Obama had previously planed to reduce the current level of 9,800 USA troops in Afghanistan to around 5,500 by the end of 2015 and withdraw all troops by the end of 2016 when Obama’s presidency comes to an end.

It is another setback for the president in his quest to extricate the US from more than a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Additionally, The New York Times reported, that President Obama was not disappointed with the recent change of plans from his first announcement in 2008. The U.S. presence of 9,800 troops will now remain through 2016, and it won’t be until 2017 when the number drops to 5,500. At the time, however, he said that he still planned to leave only a few hundred in the country after 2016. Taliban forces have already grown in the area and according to the United Nations they are more present in the country now than they were when the United States drove them out in 2001. The administration estimates that the plan will cost $14.6 billion a year.