Small Wars Journal

Experts: Obama Troop Plan Just Enough to Prop Up Afghan Army

Fri, 10/16/2015 - 1:15am

Experts: Obama Troop Plan Just Enough to Prop Up Afghan Army by Laurent Barthelemy, Agence France-Presse

The decision to keep thousands of US troops in Afghanistan drives home the hard truth that despite billions of dollars and years of training, Afghan security forces are far from ready to go it alone.

But experts are divided on whether the troop levels outlined on Thursday by President Barack Obama are sufficient to prop up the weakling Afghan army.

Obama said 9,800 US troops would stay in Afghanistan until the end of next year, scrubbing plans to pull all but 1,000 from the country after 14 years of US involvement.

James Dobbins, a former US special envoy to Afghanistan and a veteran diplomat who is now a senior fellow at the Rand Corporation, said the plan was sufficient to maintain the status quo…

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