On Thursday, October 15, 2015, President Obama announced a delay in the withdrawal of most

of the soldiers stationed in Afghanistan throughout much of 2016.

Appeals of supporters greatly contributed to Obama’s intention to remove all U.S forces by the

end of his term. He consulted with U.S. military commanders on the ground in Afghanistan as well as his

entire national security team before deciding to maintain the current troop level.

According to www.cnn.com, Obama told reporters he is not at all disappointed with the decision

he has made. As a matter of fact, he says it is his job to make necessary adjustments, and this happened to

be one of them. Obama states, “This is not the first time those adjustments have been made. This won’t

probably be the last.”

The plan is to gradually remove soldiers until he leaves office while troops continue to cultivate

and train the Afghan forces, and implement counterterrorism operations. While providing this

information, he later said, “As Commander In Chief, I will not allow Afghanistan to be used as a safe

haven for terrorists to attack our nation again.”

During his announcement, he began underscoring how Afghan forces are fully responsible for

protecting their country; however, he says supporting them is the best thing to do. According to

www.cnn.com, military commanders have argued for months that Afghans needed additional assistance

and support from the U.S. to beat back a resurgent Taliban and the Islamic State. Obama chose to go with

the Pentagon’s greatest number of troops. The U.S wish to keep 5,500 military personnel in Afghanistan.

He mentioned that their forces have been taking the initiative in battle, but they “are still not as

strong as they need to be.” According to USNEWS, they say that Afghan forces still need to rely on

American troops. The U.S is doing everything to make sure the their troops succeed so they do not have

to go back.

This situation also increases danger. USNEWS says that recently, Taliban, an Islamic

fundamentalist political movement, forces were able to capture the towns of Kundoz last month. The

Afghan military’s shortcomings make it very difficult for them to counter the Taliban’s ability to

temporarily mass and seize an objective.