Speaking today at a press conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, President Obama confirmed that the planned drawdown of US troops from Afghanistan this year has been suspended.
There had been talk of “delaying” the drawdown for some time, and the issue finally came to a head this week with Ghani requesting the troop level be maintained through at least the end of 2015.
President Obama insists that the plan to bring the current 9,800 troops down to simply an embassy-level by the end of 2016 remain in place, though he conceded that this was largely dependent on a negotiated settlemet with the Taliban.
In an indication that this 2016 pullout is almost certainly in jeopardy, however, Obama insisted that the specifics of the post-2015 drawdown are totally unknown, and will only be decided at a “later date.”
"Finally some good news!" – what I would be saying if I was a neocon.
ISIS was running out of targets
Funny, given how the US has been saying for months how well the "new" Kabul govt and its troops have been doing. I guess it is a Goldilocks thing…if the Kabul govt was on the ropes, we would have to stay longer to prop it up. Since it is (allegedly) doing better, we can't walk away prematurely and risk all that good work being undone….. And if the Kabul was doing so-so, I guess some reason for not leaving could be devised to fit that scenario as well!
Yep. A co-worker's Army son did 4(!!) tours in Iraq, then went to Korea to defend THEIR border, just came back stateside (now only a 5 hour drive away) and is now getting sent to Afghanistan, and Dad is pissed, said Army 'violated the deployment rules'. I said, jeez, what did you think? They can tell you anything – you enlist, they OWN you. How's that 'Army Dad' t-shirt fit now, ace?
It's tough for the kool-aide drinkers when reality jumps up and slaps them silly. But, despite the revelation they continue to believe…"SUPPORT THE TROOPS!!!" "OUR HEROES!!!"
BS…they will never admit that they've been tools of the elites from the beginning.
No change is good change!