Obama to halt U.S. troop withdrawals from Afghanistan

Obama is unveiling a new plan for the U.S.to keep 5,500 troops in Afghanistan when he leaves office in 2017.

Obama insisted the call to delay troop withdrawal was “not disappointing” to him, noting the U.S.is working with the Afghan government. Instead, he said, his job was to make necessary adjustments given events on the ground.

Commenting on the situation in Syria Thursday, Thornberry said he thinks President Obama “is trying to put a happy face on a disaster” by suggesting that Russia’s intervention makes Putin look weak. He ended the Iraq war and removed American troops there in 2011.

USA troops carry Afghan and US flags during a change of command ceremony in Kabul, Afghanistan, in July 2015. But he also said that the US still needs to bolster those forces to maintain the progress achieved and because “it’s the right thing to do”. “But as your commander in chief I believe this mission is vital to our national security interests”.

“This important decision paves the way for a sustained presence by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies and partners in Afghanistan”. “The narrative that we’re leaving Afghanistan is self-defeating”, he told an audience at the Association of the U.S. Army conference.

But Afghan forces have struggled in assaults from Taliban militants, who briefly took over the northern city of Kunduz.

The president says the Afghan military has made gains but is still not as strong as it needs to be.

In a reversal of policy on Afghanistan, President Barack Obama will slow the pace of withdrawing US troops, prolonging the 14-year USA engagement there and effectively handing off the task of pulling out to his successor. There are more than 6,000 non-U. The new plan has troops not in Kabul, but at Bagram Air Field just north of the Afghan capital; in Jalalabad to the east; and Kandahar to the south, the Wall Street Journal reported. The group has called for an independent investigation, in addition to the one now underway by the Pentagon and Afghan Security Forces.

Though the decision clearly was a break from the game plan he had laid out and pitched to the American public, on Thursday he downplayed any suggestion that the delay in the withdrawal was a major setback.

“This is not the first time those adjustments have been made”, Obama said. “This probably won’t be the last”. He has done the responsible thing by providing a platform for his successor to boost troop numbers if needed.

Obama had planned to only retain a small, embassy-based USA military presence by the end of next year, a timeline coinciding with the final weeks of his presidency.

He said US forces will continue to be involved in two narrow missions: counterterrorism and training, advising, and assisting Afghan forces. US forces could also conduct counterterrorism operations against elements of ISIS in Afghanistan, should the group present a threat to the USA homeland, senior administration officials added.

The USA military has flown more than 3,300 sorties and fired on enemy forces 629 times this year through the end of September.

The officials previewed the decisions on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly ahead of the president’s announcement.

The cost of the USA commitment will be $14.6 billion, which is about $4.5 billion more than the previous plan.

Obama, a Democrat, has faced steady criticism from Republicans on security issues as he has pursued a policy of winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that he inherited when he first took office in 2009. He labeled the decision “kicking this can down the road”.

Obama says USA troops’ mission in Afghanistan won’t change.

“While this new plan avoids a disaster, it is certainly not a plan for success”, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry said in a statement.

“When I took office, almost 180,000 Americans were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan”.