The White House on Friday shot down reports that President Obama has agreed to keep a larger residual U.S. military force in Afghanistan past the beginning of 2017 than planned.
Over the last 24 hours, several outlets, including the Military Times, reported that the new withdrawal plan would not require force levels to fall to about 5,000 by the end of this year, a level Obama committed to reaching last May when he laid out the drawdown schedule for the 14-year military mission.
But White House spokesman Josh Earnest clarified Friday that that goal remains the same. The only change under discussion, he said, was the sequencing of the U.S. base closures in the country and the number of troops to keep in the short term to keep some of the bases open longer than planned for security purposes.
Obama, he said, has identified 2016 or the beginning of 2017 as a “pretty clear” endpoint for the drawdown.
“By the end of 2016, he would envision the kind of military footprint like we’ve seen in other countries where we have a continued presence focused on protecting the embassy and a where we have a strong military-to-military relationship,” he said.
Afghanistan’s new president, Ashraf Ghani, will meet with Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and Secretary of State John Kerry at Camp David Monday to discuss the continued presence of U.S. troops in his country.
