Washington decides to keep 9,800 troops in Afghanistan

Afghanistan is not Germany or Japan, where, almost seven decades after the end of World War II, still stationed tens of thousands of U.S. troops. President Barack Obama announced Tuesday the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Central Asian country in late 2016.

If the schedule holds, Obama will have fulfilled a promise to end during his presidency with the wars that began after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

“It’s time to move on after more than a decade in which our foreign policy was too dominated by the wars in Iraq and Afgansitán ” Obama said in the Rose Garden of the White House. The President recalled that when he came to power in 2009, the U.S. had nearly 180,000 members of the armed forces in combat; in a few months have less than 10,000.

U.S. withdrew from Iraq in 2011 after the failed U.S. attempt to agree a long-term presence of U.S. troops in the country. The combat mission in Afghanistan, the longest war in United States officially ends at end – 2014.

The Obama plan presented, and should negotiate with the Afghan president who emerges from the elections in the elections of 14 June, provides for the presence of two more years with a dual mission: to train local forces and participate in counterterrorism operations.

There are now about 32,000 U.S. military deployed in Afghanistan. The next January, the conclusion of the combat mission, will be 9,800, as proposed by the Obama Administration. In December 2015, this number should be halved and concentrate in the capital, Kabul, and nearby Bagram base. A year later, weeks before Obama leaves office at the end of his second and final term, there will be a U.S. or beyond the usual military personnel at the embassy.

” There was no military reason to set an end date in particular. Concluded date coincides with the end of his term in office. And this is not a military but a political strategy,” he complained to a group of journalists, Robert Kagan attached to the Brookings Institution think tank and identified with the neoconservative movement. “Obviously the work is not done,” said Kagan. ” His successor will have to bear the consequences. When Al Qaeda in Afghanistan set again, someone else will be president of the United States.”

Obama made ??the decision to stagger the final withdrawal after a fleeting visit to Bagram on Sunday on the eve of a speech Wednesday in which you want to present your vision of foreign policy. The end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the decision to prioritize the fight against terrorism, with special commands or remote – piloted aircraft has been one of the pillars of his presidency. The withdrawal reflects the citizens fed up with the intervention of his predecessor, George W. Bush, but has raised questions about the influence of the first power.

Obama believes that Al – Qaeda terrorist group whose presence in Afgnanistán American – originated intervention is weakened and Afghan forces there are trained to fight with the Taliban. Over two thousand Americans have died in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.

The final timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan is subject to approval by the winner of the second round of the presidential clash Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani. The White House hopes the winner sign the agreement allowing the presence of troops two years beyond the end of fighting in December 2014. Incumbent President Hamid Karzai, was opposed.

The main obstacle is the request by the U.S., ensures that Afghanistan troops immunity from prosecution. Without agreement, the Americans must leave the country in late 2014 as Two and a half years later happened to Iraq in 2011., Violence, sectarianism and corruption continue to dominate the Arab country.

“Americans have learned that it is harder to end wars you start them,” Obama said. Like Iraq, Afghanistan is finished without glory, without the surrender of the enemy and victory parades with flags and confetti. Without victory.

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Posted by Khalil Khan on May 30 2014. Filed under USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.