For Obama, leaving more than a small force to protect the embassy in Kabul beyond next year would mean abandoning his goal to bring home almost all US troops before leaving office. But even though Obama has declared the American war in Afghanistan to be over, the Taliban's recent advances have convinced the Pentagon, many in Congress and much of the national security establishment in Washington that it is critical for US troops to remain there. The insurgents are now spread through more of Afghanistan than at any point since 2001, according to the United Nations, and last month they seized the city of Kunduz with only a few hundred fighters. At the same time, al-Qaida operatives are still finding havens in the mountains of Afghanistan, and the Islamic State has gained a toehold by recruiting disaffected Taliban, opening a treacherous new chapter in the war.
Those developments have led the White House to become increasingly convinced of the need to keep some kind of counterterrorism force in Afghanistan. Just how large a force — and whether US troops should also continue training Afghan forces — remains a subject of debate inside and outside the administration, said the officials, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss decision making within the administration. But at the very least, those pushing for an expanded mission after 2017 would like to see the United States and its NATO allies maintain at least two or three bases from which drones could be flown and Special Operations Forces could readily strike at militants. The Central Intelligence Agency also wants a larger presence to help protect its assets in Afghanistan.
For now, the option that is being most seriously considered is a proposal made this past summer by Gen. Martin Dempsey, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to keep 3,000 to 5,000 troops for the counterterrorism mission. The officials said that the Pentagon had also presented other options that range from just an embassy force of about 1,000, which mainly protects US diplomats in Kabul, to maintaining the current force of roughly 9,800, which would also allow US forces to continue training and advising the Afghans. Asked last week about what the president was considering, Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, said: "We've acknowledged that there is a policy decision to be made." He added that the president valued input from the military.
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