Top military officials, as well as Republicans and Democrats in Congress, think that trimming the force any more during Mr Obama’s presidency is a bad idea
.jpg "President Barack Obama (Photo: AP)")
Top military officials, as well as Republicans and Democrats in Congress, think that trimming the force any more during Mr Obama’s presidency is a bad idea
Fifteen years into the war that few Americans talk about any more, conditions in Afghanistan are getting worse, preventing the clean ending that President Barack Obama hoped to impose before leaving office. Violence is on the rise, the Taliban are staging new offensives, the Islamic State group is angling for a foothold and peace prospects are dim.
Afghanistan still remains a danger zone. Thus, for a second time, Mr Obama is rethinking his plan to drop US troop levels from 9,800 to 5,500 before he leaves office in January 2017.
“I don’t see any drawdowns” in the near future, said James Dobbins, Mr Obama’s former special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He predicted Mr Obama would leave the decision to the next president.
“They are just hoping that things hold together and they won’t have to face a decision on whether to actually implement the force reduction they’re talking about until late summer, early fall, by which time the administration will be on its last legs,” Mr Dobbins said.
Top military officials, as well as Republicans and Democrats in Congress, think that trimming the force any more during Mr Obama’s presidency is a bad idea.
Despite seven years of sustained efforts and spending billions of dollars and hundreds of its soldiers dead, the Obama administration still finds Afghan-istan a dangerous country. “At this point it’s clear that it’s a very difficult situation in Afghanistan right now. It’s a dangerous country,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.
He observed that the Afg-han government and the Afghan national security forces have been in charge of the security situation in country for only about a year or so. There are lessons that the Afghans had to learn and some losses that they have sustained.
But the US military and Nato partners have made substantial contributions to offering training to those security forces, Mr Earnest said.
“There’s also been a mission that US military personnel have undertaken that is focused on counter-terrorism that has both an element of protecting the forces that are serving in Afghanistan, but also protecting the US and our interests from extremist organisations that are operating in that region of the world,” he said.
