Obama Afghan Strategy, 2009-2017

Summary: During the 2008 presidential election, Democratic candidate Barack Obama criticized the George W. Bush Administration for over-emphasizing Iraq at the expense of Afghanistan and promised to wind down the Iraq conflict while placing more resources in Afghanistan. He authorized two increments of more troops in his first year in office—17,000 in early February and 30,000 in December. In March, he announced that some new troops would concentrate on training more Afghan forces. In May, he sent a new commander to Afghanistan, Lt. General Stanley McChrystal, who requested more troops in August, which was leaked to the press and generated substantial controversy as popular support for the war began waning in the United States. In a December announcement of increased troops, Obama said some troops would begin returning home in the summer of 2011 without saying how many. There were 100,000 troops in August of 2010. The number was reduced to 77,000 in September 2012 and 46,000 by December 2013. By the end of 2014, there were 16,000 American soldiers in Afghanistan. By the end of 2015, there were under 10,000. In mid-2016, Obama announced the number would remain around 8,400 until the end of his presidency in January 2017, stating his successor should determine withdrawal plans.

Introduction

During the presidential election of 2008, Democrat Barack Obama was sharply critical of US policies in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He said during the presidential campaign that whereas the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 had been a mistake, the attack against Al Qaeda and the Taliban government of Afghanistan after the events of September 11, 2001, should have been pursued more vigorously. Subsequently, as president, Obama inherited both conflicts. In the case of Afghanistan, he changed military commanders, increased troop strength, and took a much more critical attitude toward Afghan President Hamid Karzai than had President George W. Bush. Obama made two major policy announcements on Afghanistan during his first year in office.

At the same time, during Obama's first year as president, domestic popular support for the Afghan conflict declined, especially among the Democratic voters who had elected Obama. Popular perception was that the Islamist forces of the Afghan Taliban among the ethnic Pashtuns had increased their challenge to the Karzai government. At the same time, ethnic Pashtuns in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of northern Pakistan mounted a separate challenge to the government in Islamabad. A severe economic recession in the United States in 2007-2009 further discouraged support for foreign military conflict. By the end of Obama's first year in office, in December 2009, estimates of the strength of Al Qaeda fighters inside Afghanistan ranged as low as about 100. That number may or may not have included Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who had once taken refuge among the Taliban and influenced their accession to power in Kabul from 1996 to 2001. US Special Forces killed Bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.

Below is a summary of the players, positions, and actions of Barack Obama during his presidency, beginning with his campaign.

Main players

From the United States

President Barack Obama, as a candidate, was a critic of American involvement in Iraq and a supporter of American military intervention in Afghanistan.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, first appointed by President George W. Bush, who—sometimes almost visibly—tried to balance countering views among the military and to avoid political conflict between the Pentagon and the White House. He left his post in 2011.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, took an active role in defending the administration's new policy in 2009. However, she was also viewed as playing second fiddle to special envoys appointed by Obama and to military leaders. She stepped down at the end of Obama's first term and was replaced by John Kerry.

Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke, appointed in January 2009 to represent Obama in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, nominally with broad-ranging authority to revamp American policy in the region, including rivalries between Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan, in an area marked by a resurgence of the Taliban. Holbrooke brought a reputation as an outspoken individual who had made little secret of his ambition to become secretary of state in the new administration. He died in 2010.

Lt. General Stanley McChrystal, named in May 2009 to command US forces in Afghanistan, was a well-known Special Forces Joint Command commander, including counter-guerrilla troops in Iraq. On August 30, 2009, McChrystal called for a sharp increase in the number of US forces and a change in strategy that would emphasize protecting the population from the Taliban rather than hunting down Taliban and Al Qaeda. His assessment sparked a comprehensive policy review by Obama in October-November. He resigned amid controversy in 2010.

Vice President Joseph Biden, a vocal critic of US involvement in fighting the Taliban rather than sending special forces after Al Qaeda and concentrating on the stability of Pakistan. The eventual and controversial withdrawal from Afghanistan occurred in 2021 under then-President Biden's command.

From Afghanistan

Former President Hamid Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun, first appointed by the US and allies who invaded in 2001, was later elected twice, including two controversial ballots in 2009 (August and November) contested as corrupt by his chief opponent. Karzai had a close operating relationship with President George W. Bush and came under pressure from the Obama administration to combat corruption—including, according to press reports, involvement in illegal drugs by his brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, who was assassinated in 2011. His second term ended in 2014.

Abdullah Abdullah, a leading opponent of Karzai in two rounds of the 2009 elections, at the last minute before the second round, announced he would not participate on the grounds of expected corruption. Abdullah has long been a leading figure in Afghan politics closely linked to the United Front (also called the Northern Alliance) that fought the occupying Soviet army in the 1980s and resisted the Taliban after the Russian withdrawal. He was Afghanistan's foreign minister, under Karzai, from 2002-2006 and the chief executive offer beginning in 2014.

Barack Obama's Policies

During the Presidential Campaign. Obama staked his position on criticism of the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq while virtually ignoring Afghanistan, with the result that the Afghan fundamentalist Taliban, aided by Al Qaeda, was able to regroup and stage a resurgence after 2005, primarily overshadowed by the US campaign in Iraq. During the 2008 presidential campaign, popular sentiment had turned against the war in Iraq, at that point more than five years old, allowing Obama to emerge as the de facto "peace" candidate, both against his Democratic primary challenger, Senator Hillary Clinton, and his eventual Republican opponent, Senator John McCain. In a campaign statement for Time magazine (June 17, 2008), Obama declared, "My first order as Commander in Chief will be to end the war in Iraq and refocus our efforts on Afghanistan and our broader security interests.…. (W)e must recognize that the central front in the war on terror is not in Iraq, and it never was. The central front is in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is unacceptable that almost seven years after 9/11, those responsible for the attacks remain at large."

2009. In February 2009, Obama announced he would increase the US troop contingent in Afghanistan by 17,000, at the request of the Pentagon, in addition to the 36,000 already there. He said his decision was "necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction, and resources it urgently requires." Commanders had sought 30,000 more troops, of which about 6,000 arrived in January 2009, having been sent by President Bush.

In March 2009, after carrying out his first central policy review of Afghanistan, Obama announced: "We are in Afghanistan to confront a common enemy that threatens the US, our friends and our allies, and the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan who have suffered the most at the hands of violent extremists. The safety of people around the world is at stake." Some observers thought he adopted a more cooperative and less aggressive tone than the previous administration, with any parties inclined to oppose the United States. As he had during the campaign the previous autumn, Obama declared that he would correct what he said had been a shortage of resources for the Afghan-Taliban conflict and promised to increase development and training in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In May, President Obama replaced the military commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, with Lt. General Stanley McChrystal.

In December 2009, Obama announced he would send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. In the same speech, he announced that he would begin withdrawing troops in the summer of 2011 without saying by how many. He agreed to part, but not all, of the military's request for more soldiers to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda and asked for patience from anti-war objectors in the Senate. Some Republican demands were denied, notably from his 2008 presidential opponent, Senator John McCain, for an open-ended commitment, and he made clear he would pressure the Afghan government to police rampant corruption. The administration also announced separate support for Pakistan's anti-Taliban efforts in the Tribal Areas and a continued airborne drone attack against the Taliban in northern Pakistan.

2010-2011 McChrystal resigned after the publication of comments he made criticizing the Obama administration. The number of troops in Afghanistan surged to 100,000 in August 2010. In May 2011, US Special Forces killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, which completed a significant objective of the War in Afghanistan. Two months later, Obama announced his administration's plans to withdraw American forces in Afghanistan steadily.

2012-2013 The slow process of withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan began. There were 77,000 in the country as of September 2012. By December 2013, the number was reduced to 46,000.

2014-2015 Karzai refused to sign the security agreement drawn up by the Obama administration, and Obama called for a withdrawal of the remaining American forces. In May 2014, Obama unveiled his plan for all of the American troops in Afghanistan to leave by the end of 2016, coinciding with the end of his second term as president. By the end of 2014, only 16,000 American soldiers remained in Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai's second term as president ended in 2014, and he was succeeded by his former adviser, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani.

2016-2017 Though the administration planned a mid-2016 withdrawal, in July, the plan was postponed until December. In a further change of plans, the decision was made to leave nearly 8,500 troops in the region. Obama cited instability in the region and the potential repercussions of a total withdrawal for the decision and stated he would leave the absolute withdrawal decision to his successor.

Bibliography

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White paper of the interagency policy group's report on US policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan. (2009, March 27). State Democrats. Retrieved Sept. 29, 2023, from https://www.dpc.senate.gov/pdf/wh/032709‗afghanistan-pakistan‗white‗paper.pdf

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