Washington (AFP) - US commanders are weighing a delay in the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan after the country's protracted election set back preparations for the transition, Washington defense officials said Wednesday Under the current plan outlined by President Barack Obama, the US force will dwindle to 9,800 troops by January along with roughly 2,000 allied forces, and all American soldiers will be out by the end of 2016. But after a months-long electoral dispute that postponed the signing of a crucial US-Afghan security agreement, there are questions about the readiness of Afghan forces and whether allied governments will have arrangements in place for their troops to deploy by 2015, officials said. Pushing back the timeline is "an option" that is being looked at, but no decision has been made, said one Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "They are looking at the troop numbers to see if they can hit their mark," the official told AFP. The new head of the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, General John Campbell, and other senior officers are reviewing whether a larger force needs to stay in place longer than initially planned, officials said. US Marines take a rest at Lashkar Gah in Helmand province on October 26, 2014 (AFP Photo/Wakil Kohsa … "Right now he (Campbell) is comfortable with the current plan and timeline," said another military official who asked not to be named. But "there are variables which need to be considered, such as the delay in the elections," as well as a new Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, and the performance of Afghan forces, the official said. "He is looking at risks to mission and risks to force and trying to find the right balance," he said. Obama has vowed to end America's military presence in Afghanistan and a recommendation from top brass to alter the troop drawdown pace could present the US president with a difficult dilemma. youtube.com/watch?v=uDo11eOy34g Just how much time is needed in getting the Afghanistan military ready , 5 years, 10 years, 20 years? I thought that the afghanistan military was being trained over the last 10 years to take over and bring our troops home. Now I see we are probably going to stay there longer to train their military even more because their training hasn't been very good for thousands of Afghanistan troops have been killed and if we leave there will be even more killed, more than can be replaced fast enough. That to me seems as if the training they received wasn't done very well or that the Afghanistan military is the same as the Iraq military and do not want to fight for their country. I don't believe the training was bad but that the Afghanistan military just doesn't care enough about being free of the Taliban by fighting them with vigor. So here we are all over again having to remain in a country that doesn't want to fight for itself but want's Americans to die for them and get billions of dollars for their corrupt government for perpetuity. I can't see staying somewhere where there's no ending to this war because when one terrorist organization is conquered another will automatically pop up. These terrorists are probably supported by their corrupt government with the dollars sends them so that American dollars keep coming and the war continues forever or when America is bankrupt.
Good, we should stay however long it takes. To withdraw prematurely would be to make the whole endeavor pointless.
