Thursday, October 15, 2015

Barack Obama delays withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan

President Obama has recently decided to leave 5,500 troops in Afghanistan into 2017, despite promising to end the war over there under his watch. He explains the it is practically necessary to keep troops there because there continues to be a real problem with the Taliban continuing to gain territory and that can't be overlooked. The Afghan force isn't up to par and as the Taliban keep gaining ground the situation has the potential to spiral out of control. Obama explicitly states that he does not want endless war but states that we have firm international coalitions in which we must support. As Obama's presidency comes to an end in 2017 it will be interesting to see what he does if his goals aren't accomplished. The ultimate goal that I got from this article is that keeping the troops in Afghanistan for an extra year will slow the pace of the Taliban, in which makes sense to keep the troops there.

Hayden Witt

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/15/obama-delay-withdrawal-us-troops-afghanistan

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