http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/03/24/white-house-announces-pause-in-us-troop-drawdown-from-afghanistan/?intcmp=latestnewsPublished March 24, 2015
FoxNews.com
DEVELOPING ...
President Obama announced Tuesday that the U.S. will keep nearly 10,000 troops in Afghanistan through the end of the year, hitting pause on the scheduled drawdown after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani voiced security concerns.
The president announced the move in a joint press conference with Ghani. The two met earlier in the Oval Office, during Ghani's first White House visit since being elected president of the war-torn country.
"This flexibility reflects our reinvigorated partnership with Afghanistan," Obama said.
The original plan was to bring the U.S. force down to 5,500 by the end of the year. Under the new plan, detailed in a White House statement and announced by Obama during the press conference, the current force of 9,800 troops will remain through the end of 2015. Ghani had sought the more robust U.S. troop presence.
Obama stressed that the "specific trajectory" of the drawdown for 2016 will be established later this year -- but he still wants to stick to the plan of reducing the force to a "Kabul-based embassy presence" by the time he leaves office.
