Afghanistan Plan Released By President Barack Obama

Afghanistan Plan Released By President Barack Obama

President Barack Obama announced that only 10,000 U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan in 2014 with a full withdrawal being considered for 2015 if Afghan leadership doesn’t sign the joint security agreement.

Obama talked about his plan to news representative in the White House Rose Garden this Tuesday saying that he will bring America’s longest war to a responsible end. He also added that all combat missions in Afghanistan will end with U.S. troops handing over security to Afghani forces.

According to the President by the beginning of 2015, the U.S. presence in Afghanistan will be reduced to 9,800 service members located throughout the country. Along with U.S. troops the entire NATO contingent deployed in Afghanistan will be reduced to nearly half by 2015.

The remaining troops will continue to operate only in Kabul and Bagram air base, close to Afghanistan’s capital city. By the end of 2016 the remaining troops should also be withdrawn with just a normal embassy remaining like in Irak's case, after the 2011 withdrawal.

Currently around 32,000 troops are present in Afghanistan. The remaining troops will continue to train Afghan military personnel and to support all counter-terrorism operations in the country.

The withdrawal plan was criticized by some government officials back home who accuse the President of putting his popularity ahead of security as it may plunge Afghanistan into the same chaos that Irak fell into after the rushed 2011 withdrawal.

Posted by James Fried on Friday May 30 2014, 4:24 AM EST. Ref: VoA. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0