Obama Is Rethinking Pullout in Afghanistan, Officials Say - nytimes

WASHINGTON — With pressure building on the White House to slow or completely halt the withdrawal of American troops fromAfghanistan, senior officials said thatPresident Obama appears increasingly willing to keep a force there large enough to carry on the hunt for Al Qaeda and Islamic State militants.

For President Obama, leaving more than a small force to protect the embassy in Kabul beyond next year would mean abandoning his goal to bring home almost all American troops before leaving office. But even though Mr. Obama has declared the American war in Afghanistan to be over, the Taliban’s recent advances have convinced the Pentagon, many in Congress and much of the national security establishment in Washington that it is critical for American troops to remain there.

The insurgents are now spread through more of Afghanistan than at any point since 2001, according to the United Nations, and last month they seized the city of Kunduz with only a few hundred fighters. At the same time, Al Qaeda operatives are still finding havens in the mountains of Afghanistan, and the Islamic State has gained a toehold by recruiting disaffected Taliban, opening a treacherous new chapter in the war.

Those developments have led the White House to become increasingly convinced of the need to keep some kind of counterterrorism force in Afghanistan. Just how large a force — and whether American troops should also continue training Afghan forces — remains a subject of debate inside and outside the administration, said the officials, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss decision making within the administration.

But at the very least, those pushing for an expanded mission after 2017 would like to see the United States and its NATO allies maintain at least two or three bases from which drones could be flown and Special Operations Forces could readily strike at militants. The Central Intelligence Agency also wants a larger presence to help protect its assets in Afghanistan.

But the most striking element of the paper, which was provided to The New York Times ahead of its release, is the list of more than 20 former senior officials, Democrats and Republicans alike, who have signed on to it. The list includes Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state who served under President Clinton; Stephen Hadley, who was national security adviser to President George W. Bush; two former defense secretaries,Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta (who also ran the Central Intelligence Agency); and four former American ambassadors to Afghanistan. The paper’s two sponsors are Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island. - Read More at NYT

Obama Is Rethinking Pullout in Afghanistan, Officials Say

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