WASHINGTON, May 28: As President Barack Obama announced troops drawdown plans from war-torn Afghanistan, the emergence of new leadership in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan provides an opportunity to ensure greater stability and security to the region, top US officials said.
Obama yesterday said the 32,000 American troops now in Afghanistan would be reduced to 9,800 after this year. He plans to withdraw the last American troops by the end of 2016, bringing an end America’s longest war.
Despite Obama’s effort to end the 13 years of American military engagement in Afghanistan, the US will continue to have troops engaged in counterterrorism operations against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the war-torn country for at least two more years.
The US has conceded that there continues to be threats emanating from Afghanistan and Pakistan, although the top al-Qaeda leadership has been significantly decimated.
“We do believe that we have struck significant blows against al Qaeda’s leadership,” said an official. “However, we do want to maintain a counterterrorism capability precisely because we don’t want al Qaeda to regenerate. We don’t want there to be significantly enhanced space for them to operate.”
“We have to recognise Afghanistan will not be a perfect place, and it is not America’s responsibility to make it one,” he said.
“With that new leadership in India, the new leadership in Pakistan and the new President coming to office in Afghanistan this year, I think we have an opportunity to have that discussion about how all the countries in the region can provide for a greater stability and security,” a senior Obama administration official said.
“And that’s certainly something we’re going to pursue.” (PTI)
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