President, Barack Obama has announced his pledge to end combat operations in Afghanistan by the end of the year.
The plan to end ‘America’s longest war’, a 13 year combat mission, will mean that US troops will no longer patrol Afghan cities or towns.
However, this does not mean the US is abandoning Afghanistan. A force of 9800 will remain in the country, for simply training purposes, to train Afghan forces and support counterterrorism operations.
This number is also planned to be reduced to half by the end of 2015 with the goal of having only a ‘normal embassy presence’ in the country by 2016, similar to the US role in Iraq.
President Obama made this announcement 2 days after surprising US troops in Afghanistan, which for many will be their last tour of duty in the country.
Afghanistan will continue to receive financial and development assistance but Obama says it is no longer the US place to make the country perfect and that they can only offer Afghans the support opportunity to find their own peace.
Article written by D Mulhern
