President Obama has scrapped plans to end the War in Afghanistan before he leaves office.
White House officials told the Associated Press Thursday that the US will keep its current force size of nearly 10,000 soldiers in tact through 2016, and that it will plan to indefinitely keep roughly 5,000 troops there.
The AP said the scaling back of that force will occur “at a pace still to be determined by commanders.”
The administration had previously been hoping to pare down the US contingency in Afghanistan to an embassy protection force of about 1,000 soldiers.
During a speech at the Association of the US Army on Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said “the narrative that we’re leaving Afghanistan is self-defeating.”
“We’re not, we can’t and to do so would not be to take advantage of the success we’ve had to date,” he remarked.
President Obama–who had promised to end both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars under his watch, once declaring combat missions in both of those countries over–had faced pressure from brass at the Pentagon over his previous Afghanistan withdrawal timetable. Administration officials cited recent gains by the Taliban and claims about an increasing Islamic State threat in Afghanistan as a reason for the about-face.
Remaining US troops in Afghanistan will be tasked with carrying out counterterrorism missions and training Afghan national security forces. They will be based in Kabul, Bagram, Jalalabad, and Kandahar.
