Lynch III, Thomas F

Abstract
The U.S. strategy for withdrawal of U.S./NATO forces from Afghanistan, nearing completion of its first and largest tranche, was officially delayed at least a year by President Obama on March 24, 2015. The announcement formalized informal U.S. troop-level modifications authorized by the President that began back in November 2014. It was confirmation of a welcome and necessary but insufficient delay in a strategically flawed drawdown that will have lasting negative consequences if not altered even more fundamentally before the end of 2015. Despite the modest benefits from the delay, the largely unaltered U.S. and NATO drawdown trajectory into a limited support and counterterrorism mission—known as Operation Resolute Support— is too deep and lacks too many critical military capabilities to properly safeguard minimal U.S. and Western security requirements for Afghanistan and within wider South Asia.
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