Why is the Obama Administration Keeping More Troops in Afghanistan?

During an unannounced trip to Afghanistan last week, outgoing Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced that an additional 1,000 U.S. troops will remain in the country through the spring of 2015.  This will increase the planned U.S. troop presence for the first quarter of 2015 to 10,800.

Although Hagel’s announcement came after two weeks of intense Taliban attacks – including nine attacks in Kabul – Obama officials said the troop increase and is due to difficulties in getting troop commitments from other coalition countries and unrelated to the Taliban violence

Hagel and other Obama officials also said that the troop increase does not mean the administration is backing away from the withdrawal schedule that President Obama announced last May.  Under this plan, the U.S troop presence will drop to 9,800 by early 2015.  That number will be cut in half by the end of 2015 and reduced to a couple hundred to defend the U.S. embassy at the end of 2016.  This plan has been criticized by many members of Congress as politically motivated and divorced from the security situation.

I believe there is more to Hagel’s announcement than the administration is prepared to admit.

The difficulty finding other nations to contribute troops probably is a sign they are worried about the deteriorating security situation.  I also do not believe the announced increase in U.S. troops is unrelated to the spike in Taliban violence.

What I am unsure of is whether this also means the Obama administration is reconsidering its Afghanistan policy in light of its much-criticized Iraq withdrawal plan and the prospect that the Taliban may overrun Afghanistan after coalition troops withdraw.  Although I believe this is unlikely, the president’s policy shifts on Syria and Iraq due to the ISIS threat indicate he is capable of changing his mind.  Hopefully, he will also do so on Afghanistan by approving a new strategy with a  better chance of protecting what our troops fought so hard for that is not tied to an arbitrary withdrawal schedule.