Obama Says Future Drawdowns Will Be Considered at 'Later Date'

Speaking today at a press conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, President Obama confirmed that the planned drawdown of US troops from Afghanistan this year has been suspended.

There had been talk of “delaying” the drawdown for some time, and the issue finally came to a head this week with Ghani requesting the troop level be maintained through at least the end of 2015.

President Obama insists that the plan to bring the current 9,800 troops down to simply an embassy-level by the end of 2016 remain in place, though he conceded that this was largely dependent on a negotiated settlemet with the Taliban.

In an indication that this 2016 pullout is almost certainly in jeopardy, however, Obama insisted that the specifics of the post-2015 drawdown are totally unknown, and will only be decided at a “later date.”