US wants to slow down Afghanistan troop withdrawal

[Donald Polish]

Washington is considering shifting the deadline for troop its withdrawal from Afghanistan to make sure the “progress” from over 13 years of US operations in the country “sticks,” the new US Defense Secretary said during a surprise visit to Kabul.
“Our priority now is to make sure this progress sticks,” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in a news conference in Kabul with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. “That is why President Obama is considering a number of options to reinforce our support for President Ghani’s security strategy, including possible changes to the timeline for our drawdown of US troops.”
Under the current arrangement, the 11,000-strong US force should be cut to roughly 5,000 by the end of 2015, before pulling out altogether the following year, when Obama will leave office. By the end of 2016 the US military presence is expected to shrink to a “normal” embassy security contingent.

We will never leave Afghanistan... I have heard something about "Middle East trap". Do you? There must be reasonable explanations why is it happening? Is Big Game still going on? I seriously doubt that the DRA is a key region there.

 

[depotoo]

If it can keep it relatively quiet there, then why not? Otherwise we willl be back under extreme conditions. In the long run, it is safer for our soldiers to stay there rather than having to start all over again. . And less likely extremists will manage another attack on the US planned from there with our ears to the ground, so to speak.

Washington is considering shifting the deadline for troop its withdrawal from Afghanistan to make sure the “progress” from over 13 years of US operations in the country “sticks,” the new US Defense Secretary said during a surprise visit to Kabul.
“Our priority now is to make sure this progress sticks,” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in a news conference in Kabul with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. “That is why President Obama is considering a number of options to reinforce our support for President Ghani’s security strategy, including possible changes to the timeline for our drawdown of US troops.”
Under the current arrangement, the 11,000-strong US force should be cut to roughly 5,000 by the end of 2015, before pulling out altogether the following year, when Obama will leave office. By the end of 2016 the US military presence is expected to shrink to a “normal” embassy security contingent.

We will never leave Afghanistan... I have heard something about "Middle East trap". Do you? There must be reasonable explanations why is it happening? Is Big Game still going on? I seriously doubt that the DRA is a key region there.