WSJ - Obama Details Plan for Forces in Afghanistan --- WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama announced plans to keep a robust U.S. force in Afghanistan next year but then withdraw it by the end of 2016, as he prepared a major address Wednesday aimed at recalibrating American foreign policy and countering criticism that U.S. power has waned under his watch. -- As part of that effort, officials said Mr. Obama is close to approving, for the first time, a military training program for the armed Syrian opposition, in a reflection of growing criticism that the U.S. hasn't done enough to help moderate rebels counter the Assad regime and challenge the growing strength of al-Qaeda-linked militants. -- U.S. officials said the ultimate withdrawal from Afghanistan, which would remove most U.S. forces by the time Mr. Obama leaves office, will give the U.S. more flexibility to respond to growing terrorism threats from al Qaeda affiliates and other extremist groups in the Middle East and North Africa. It also is meant to promise a war-weary public that the 13-year-old conflict will end, while hoping to show anxious allies that America isn't abandoning them. --- Mr. Obama's West Point commencement speech on Wednesday will advocate for substituting the use of American military might with other types of U.S. power, including diplomacy and economic pressure, while still reserving the option to use force. The address begins a new effort by the White House to define Mr. Obama's foreign and national security policy, after critics have seized on his reluctance to intervene in the Syrian civil war and on his limited response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's aggressiveness in Ukraine. -- Mr. Obama will follow up with a speech in Poland next week about U.S. engagement in Europe. In Normandy, he'll put current American leadership in a historical context, administration officials say. -- Mr. Obama's decision to leave 9,800 troops in Afghanistan next year adhered closely to the recommendations of his top military advisers and commanders in Afghanistan, who warned the White House that leaving fewer troops would make it difficult for them to secure bases outside of the capital. -- Other powerful voices within the administration, including Vice President Joe Biden, had urged Mr. Obama to pull all but a few thousand troops out of Afghanistan at the end of this year and to restrict their activities to conducting counterterrorism missions against the remnants of al Qaeda. -- The U.S. troops initially will be deployed across Afghanistan and tasked with two missions: counterterrorism and conducting training for Afghan forces with North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies. -- By the end of 2015, the U.S. will withdraw roughly half of the 9,800 troops and consolidate the remaining forces to posts in Kabul and at Bagram Air Field, which is near the capital. -- By the end of 2016, the U.S. will withdrawal virtually all of the remaining troops, leaving behind a limited military presence to oversee security cooperation and to secure the embassy. -- The announcement had clear political overtones for Mr. Obama, who has promised to take the U.S. off a war footing, pulling all troops out of Iraq and now laying the ground for a similar outcome in Afghanistan. The timetable also directs the military to draw down to a normal embassy presence just before he leaves office in January 2017. -- The president's plan for a post-2014 U.S. troop presence still hinges on the next Afghan president signing a bilateral security agreement, or BSA, with the U.S. The two candidates vying to succeed Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who must step down this year, publicly have said they would sign a BSA if elected. - Without a security agreement, Mr. Obama could withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan. -- A runoff election is scheduled for June, with the swearing in of the next president expected later this summer. That leaves plenty of time for Mr. Obama and the new Afghan leader to seal an agreement, the senior administration official said. Neither could be reached for comment on the troop details Tuesday. -- Mr. Obama spoke with Mr. Karzai Tuesday before his announcement, the White House said. -- He also informed British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of his plans in advance. -- The U.S. is counting on NATO allies and other international partners to send up to a few thousand of their own trainers to Afghanistan to supplement the 9,800 Americans. --- Some lawmakers criticized the withdrawal announcement, pointing to signs that al Qaeda in Afghanistan could pose a bigger threat than the administration seems to believe. -- "I question whether the policy reflected by these numbers and timelines truly confronts the threat we face," said the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan. --- Most Democratic leaders embraced the decision but some complained that Mr. Obama wasn't bringing all U.S. troops in Afghanistan home sooner. Reps. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona and Keith Ellison of Minnesota, co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in a statement that "keeping a residual force of 9,800 in the country after 2014 is not ending the war." -- In Afghanistan, Shukria Barakzai, a lawmaker who is a member of the Afghan Parliament's defense committee, said the announcement of a two-year commitment after 2014 was a blow to Afghan morale. "Two years is not enough," she said. "I believe the announcement today was good news for insurgents, and bad news for the people of Afghanistan." - More, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303403604579588574244016560