White House slows withdrawal from Afghanistan
When the White House planned the withdrawal from Afghanistan, they intended for there to be only 5500 troops still there at the end of this year, down from the ten thousand there currently. There has been speculation in the last several weeks that they were planning to slow the withdrawal because of deteriorating security conditions there. Well, they announced the plan yesterday according to Fox News;
Obama stressed that the “specific trajectory” of the drawdown for 2016 will be established later this year — and he still wants to stick to the plan of reducing the force to a “Kabul-based embassy presence” by the time he leaves office. “That hasn’t changed,” Obama said on Tuesday.
The pace of the U.S. troop drawdown was the focus of daylong White House meetings, and the centerpiece of [Afghan President Ashraf] Ghani’s highly anticipated visit to the U.S.
[…]
For Obama, Ghani represents the last, best hope to make good on the president’s promise to end America’s longest war by the time he leaves office, keeping just a thousand or so troops at the embassy to coordinate security.
[…]
Ghani’s government asked the president to keep more U.S. troops in his country for longer, as Afghan forces brace for a tough spring fighting season and contend with Islamic State fighters looking to recruit on their soil.
The Associated Press quotes Ghani;
Ghani thanked American servicemen and women and civilian contractors. “I’d also like to thank the American taxpayer for his and her hard-earned dollars,” he said.
[…]
He said the slower U.S. troop withdrawal “will be used to accelerate reforms, to ensure that the Afghan National Security Forces are much better led, equipped, trained and are focused on their fundamental mission. He added that he was pleased to say that “the departure of 120,000 international troops has not brought about the security gap or collapse that was often anticipated.”
Yeah, that hasn’t happened in the last 14 years with tens of thousand US troops, but it will this year with an extra 5,000. Totally credible.
Category: Terror War
Since when have B. Hussein 0bama & Company been transparent or honest about anything they’ve done? I only wonder how they’ll bungle this and try to pass the blame afterward while gambling American lives.
It’s a shame that the leader of Afghanistan has more appreciation for the U.S. serviceman/woman and the U.S. taxpayer than our own CiC.
Amen! I was impressed with his words. Hope he follows up.
There was a brief moment of PM Ghani’s speech to Congress on the evening news tonight, so I watched that. He did thank the US people (that’s us) for our help.
This is what I really noticed.
Behind PM Ghani, to his left (screen right) sat someone wearing a blue suit with a green tie, and twiddling his thumbs, a clear sign of sheer boredom.
The face of this individual was not shown, therefore, I can’t confirm who the thumb-twiddler was. I will say, however, that if he’s THAT bored with the job, he should quit now before he embarrasses himself and this country any further.
In everything Obama has said about Afghanistan (and Iraq before that) he has only spoken of “ending” the wars. Not winning but ending.
Can’t wait for 20 Jan 2017.
Any bets that bodaprez will change his flight mind and decide to send more to Afghanistan?
Nothing will surprise me any more.
Nothing.
Betcha he won’t refer to their presence as “boots on the ground.”
Prez wishing this whole foreign policy rubbish would just go away (like punt to next POTUS), so he can focus on more important stuff like social justice. The dude just looks bored/tired & going through the motions. Had an embarrassing flub when he referred to PM Ghani as Hamid Karzai at recent joint presser…not a warm fuzzy feeling.
Yeah–he’s been phoning it in since 2010.
The problem with Obama is simply that he can’t stand the idea that regardless of what he promised and what he thinks of Bush’s invasion the reality is once a vacuum is created within a power structure something or someone always looks to fill the vacuum.
That vacuum can be filled with a US presence or a Taliban/ISIS/AQ presence…those are the choices available.
No matter what he thinks about the importance of leaving, as we see in Iraq leaving too early only leaves chaos and death behind….
You can shit in one hand and wish for a different outcome in the other, but I believe we all understand which hand will get filled first.
Veritas Omnia Vincit…Thank you and you are correct. Obama has never learned the strategies of foreign negotiations or military management and never will. They are beyond the man’s intelligence in my belief. Or at the least, far lower on his list of what is important to him, number one being, how he looks to EVERYONE, instead of simple doing his job and letting opinions be what they will. I believe is has never liked being President, aside from the money and perks it has given him and cannot wait to be out of office. He left a wake of turmoil in Iraq which we will deal with for generations. His plans thus far will leave Afghanistan in the same condition. As well as Yemen and anything else he touches.
I see the terrorist-in-chief had the time for the afghani president, but not the head of NATO. Hhhmmmm? I wonder if it has anything to do with one being a muzz and the other not so much.
Secondly, I m sure the afghan guy was here to beg & plead that the T-I-C slowed down our troop withdrawal. I mean, after all, he hasn’t had time to get his “fair-share” of our tax dollars.