BARACK OBAMA is belatedly heeding his military advisers amid deteriorating security in Afghanistan. This was recently dramatised by the shocking, if short-lived, fall of Kunduz to the Taliban—the first major city they had taken since they were toppled by an American invasion in 2001. Mr Obama is expected to announce on October 15th that America’s plans for withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan by the end of next year have been put on hold. A force of 5,500 troops will still be there in 2017, when Mr Obama leaves office. It will be up to his successor to decide on how long it stays or, indeed, whether to strengthen it.
The change of heart follows a visit to Washington in March by Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani (pictured), who pleaded for the troops to stay. Mr Obama appears to favour the middle of a range of options that were proposed by the Pentagon. The force of 5,500 is just about large enough to maintain operations at key bases. These are Bagram, near Kabul, which is the logistical hub for America and its NATO allies; another near Kandahar in the south; and a third close to Jalalabad in the east. Such a spread is important given the geographic extent of the...Continue reading
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