President Obama began his speech with a statement enunciating the dangers in the world. Thereafter, the president spoke to the details of our experience with the surge, its success and future plans for withdrawal of the United States and the allies. President Obama made an historic statement on Afghanistan with huge implications for the future.
As reported by The Weekly Standard, the president said,
For this reason, in one of the most difficult decisions that I've made as president, I ordered an additional 30,000 American troops into Afghanistan. When I announced this surge at West Point, we set clear objectives: to refocus on Al Qaeda, to reverse the Taliban momentum, and train Afghan security forces to defend their own country. I also made it clear that our commitment would not be open-ended, and that we would begin to draw down our forces this July
President Obama began by discussing the dangers in the world and the justification of the surge of American troops into Afghanistan. Essentially, much of the most difficult work has been accomplished and the task of extricating ourselves from Afghanistan is just beginning. Both political spectra are weighing in on our commitment. One side would like to employ a very cautious approach in drawing down troops and support personnel. The other side would like to leave right now and utilize the budgetary resources for critical needs at home including health care, jobs, debt reduction and a crumbling infrastructure domestically.
As a result, starting next month, we will be able to remove 10,000 of our troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, and we will bring home a total of 33,000 troops by next summer, fully recovering the surge I announced at West Point.
We're starting this drawdown from a position of strength. Al Qaeda is under more pressure than at any time since 9/11. Together with the Pakistanis, we have taken out more than half of Al Qaeda's leadership.
We're leaving Afghanistan but work remains to be done. We cannot have a perfect democracy in Afghanistan but a real process of self-determination is what the United States seeks to encourage. As we draw down, we must do so in a way that preserves our advantage in marginalizing the influence of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and its neighboring states.
In Afghanistan, we've inflicted serious losses on the Taliban and taken a number of its strongholds. Along with the surge, our allies also increased their commitments, which helped stabilize more of the country.
Afghan security forces have grown by over 100,000 troops, and in some provinces and municipalities we've already begun to transition responsibility for security to the Afghan people.
The Taliban have been marginalized, but are they ready to negotiate? Our Defense Secretary Robert Gates believes that the Taliban may not be ready to negotiate until later on this year. Ostensibly, they are coming around to the idea of negotiation; however, the leadership just isn't there yet.
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