US President Barack Obama announced plans for a faster withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan in a prime-time televised address from the White House on Wednesday night, saying that Al Qaeda was now under “more pressure” than at any time since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
He said 10,000 US troops would leave Afghanistan by the end of this year, and another 23,000 soldiers by the end of September 2012, two months before American voters decide whether or not to elect Mr Obama to a second term. The phased withdrawal would continue till Afghans take charge of their own security by 2014.
And in a blunt warning to Pakistan, Mr Obama vowed he would not tolerate any more “safe havens” for terrorists in that country, demanding that Islamabad honour its commitments to root out the “cancer of violent extremism”. He said: “There should be no doubt that so long as I am President, the United States will never tolerate a safe haven for those who aim to kill us: they cannot elude us, nor escape the justice they deserve.”
Referring to Pakistan, he said “No country is more endangered by the presence n Turn to Page 2
of violent extremists... We will work with the Pakistani government to root out the cancer of violent extremism, and we will insist that it keep its commitments.”
The US President’s comments came amid festering strains in ties between the US and Pakistan, particularly after the unilateral American action in which Al Qaeda chieftain Osama bin Laden was killed in his hideout in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad last month. Mr Obama spoke over the phone to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari just before his speech, and the two agreed to take “appropriate steps” to repair ties.
In Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed the US plan, saying Afghans increasingly trusted their security forces. France too welcomed the announcement, while European nations which had sent troops to Afghanistan also said they would also proceed with phased reductions.
But the Taliban, resurgent a decade after being toppled from power after 9/11, dismissed the announcement and said only a full, immediate withdrawal of foreign forces could stop “pointless bloodshed”. They rejected any suggestion of US military gains.
In his address, President Obama vowed that the US — struggling to restore its global image, shore up the economy and reduce unemployment at home — would exercise new restraint with military power. “Tonight, we take comfort in knowing that the tide of war is receding,” Mr Obama said in a 15-minute statement, heralding the gradual reduction of US forces in Iraq and limited US involvement in the international air campaign against Libya. “America, it is time to focus on nation building at home.”
The US also plans to pull back hundreds of civilian advisers helping govern Afghanistan and cuts in billions of dollars in aid are also likely. Many fear the attempt to wean Afghanistan off foreign aid to form a sustainable state could generate more corruption and chaos.
Mr Obama’s plan, which will bring home the entire “surge” force he sent to Afghanistan in 2010, pits him against military advisers unhappy at the prospect of any hasty drawdown. The cuts went further than many expected, in particular options offered by Gen. David Petraeus, outgoing commander of US and Nato troops in Afghanistan, now due to lead the CIA.
While outgoing defence secretary Robert Gates backed Mr Obama’s plan, it is unlikely to sit well with the Pentagon’s top brass who worry insurgents could regain lost territory.
Even after the withdrawal of 33,000 troops, around 70,000 will remain, about twice the number when Mr Obama took office. Some US legislators said Mr Obama should have cut deeper and faster.