(Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said he's slowing the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, leaving 8,400 military personnel in the country at the end of the year to help Afghan forces cope with a “precarious” security situation.
The announcement, which comes a day before Obama heads to Warsaw for a meeting with other North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders, is an acknowledgment that his effort to extract the U.S. from the longest conflict in American history won't be accomplished while he's in office.
The Taliban remains a threat to the government in Afghanistan and the country's security forces are not as strong as they need to be, Obama said in remarks at the White House. He said his decision would give his successor a “solid foundation” to ensure stability in the region.
The U.S. had planned to draw down troop levels in Afghanistan from 9,800 to about 5,500 by the end of the Obama administration. That pace already represented a retreat from initial plans to reduce the footprint of American soldiers to just 1,000 based out of the Kabul embassy by 2017.
But the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan has gained new momentum, including a suicide attack late last month on a convoy of police cadets that left at least 33 people dead.
The president said the move was on the recommendation of General John Nicholson, his new commander in Afghanistan. Nicholson has been undertaking a review of U.S. posture in the country, and his predecessors had also requested a larger contingency of troops remain longer in Afghanistan. Last month, Obama moved to give U.S. forces a greater ability to assist and enable Afghan forces, including through the greater use of air power.
--With assistance from Margaret Talev To contact the reporters on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net, Toluse Olorunnipa in Washington at tolorunnipa@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Michael Shepard
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
