A2 Friday, October 16, 2015, Bangor Daily News
Guard official: Afghanistan plan won’t affect Maine units BY NOK-NOI RICKER BDN STAFF
AUGUSTA — President Barack Obama’s announcement Thursday that he plans to slow the withdrawal of the remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan will have little immediate effect on Maine National Guard units but they will be ready if called upon, an official said. “While there are no units from the Maine Air National Guard, nor Maine Army National Guard deployed to the
region, we remain fully trained and prepared to mobilize wherever and whenever we are needed,” Capt. Norm Stickney, spokesman for the Maine National Guard, said Thursday in an email. “During these times of global turmoil and uncertainty, the citizens of Maine can rest assured that the Maine National Guard is always ready.” Obama’s plan will keep the force of about 9,800 soldiers in Afghanistan through most of 2016, with reductions beginning the following year.
Obama
Correcting the record
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Continued from Page A1 Afghans “are standing up for their country,” Obama said. “If they were to fail, they would endanger the security of us all.” Keeping some U.S. troops in the country to prevent that, he said, “is a reminder that the United States keeps our commitments.” The announcement drew conditional praise from leading Republicans in Congress. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, chairman of the Senate
A story on Page A1 of Wednesday’s paper about housing needs for Maine’s aging population should have stated that Maine is expected to have the largest per capita population of baby boomers of all the states by 2020.
U.S. Sen. Angus King, a member of the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, said Obama made the right choice to abandon his pledge to bring the majority of troops home before he leaves office. “The president has made a difficult decision, but it is the right one,” King said in a press release. “Over the past few years, with the assistance of U.S. and coalition military forces, the new unity Afghan government has worked to bring greater stability to the
country and forge significant progress in improving the lives of Afghan citizens. “To reduce our forces in order to meet an arbitrary deadline would have been a mistake and could have jeopardized that progress,” said King, who traveled to Afghanistan last year. “I am encouraged by the president’s decision and will continue to evaluate how the U.S. can play a constructive role in Afghanistan that also supports our shared security interests.”
King has advocated for the U.S. to withdraw its military forces in Afghanistan on a conditions-based timeline as the unity government, led by President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, continues to implement its reform agenda and make progress that is in the interest of all Afghans, the King press release states. In his Afghanistan trip, King meet with Ghani and Abdullah and “discussed economic and security challeng-
es and explored ways the U.S. could work with the Afghanistan government to sustain progress,” the release states. Obama previously had intended to cut the total number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan from 9,800 to about 5,500 by 2016. Under that plan, only a small force of about 1,000 would have been left in place to guard the U.S. Embassy by the time a new president was sworn into office in 2017.
Armed Services Committee, praised the decision but said Obama should have kept a larger number of troops in Afghanistan for a longer period. But while Republicans were pleased, the decision to keep a significant force in Afghanistan represents a major setback for Obama. He has long talked of bringing to an end the two wars — in Afghanistan and Iraq — that he inherited. Instead, he now faces the near certainty that when his tenure ends, both countries will still be at war, and the U.S. will continue to play a major role in both conflicts.
The announcement comes after months of review and internal debates involving Obama, Pentagon officials, U.S. commanders and Afghan officials. In recent weeks, the White House had been examining options offered by Gen. John Campbell, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. In the end, however, the Taliban played a major role in deciding the issue. Last
month, Taliban militants seized the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, the first time they had taken control of a major city since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Although Afghan forces, backed by U.S. airstrikes, drove the militants out of Kunduz this week, the Taliban’s ability to successfully strike a major city convinced administration officials that a wholesale with-
drawal of U.S. forces would risk an all-out collapse of Afghan security forces. Pentagon leaders and members of Congress, led by McCain, have warned that Afghanistan could repeat the experience of Iraq, where the withdrawal of U.S. troops led to instability and opened the way for Islamic State militants to seize control of large parts of the country.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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