Drawdown plan unchanged: White House

WASHINGTON (Pajhwok): The White House on Tuesday ruled out any change in its drawdown plan from Afghanistan in the aftermath of the brazen terrorist attack on a Peshawar school.

“The president is committed to ensuring that we remain on track for a responsible drawdown outlined in terms of our military presence in Afghanistan,” the White House press secretary said.

Josh Earnest told reporters at his daily news conference the strategy that US troops in Afghanistan were pursuing was focused on counter-terrorism in a way that would assist the Afghan government.

They were also trying to ensure the protection of American personnel still in that country, he said in response to a question. The mission will entail training Afghan security forces so that they could continue the process of taking responsibility for security.

“I do think that the terrible event that occurred in Pakistan highlights the violent tendencies of some of these extremist groups, which, in turn, underscores the need to do all that we can to strengthen Afghan forces…”

He said Afghan forces should be enabled to protect their country and citizens from the extremist groups that were carrying out acts of violence against Muslims in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The United States, he promised, would continue to stand with its partners in Afghanistan in the same way that it stood with Pakistanis. There were a variety of reasons for that, he maintained.

“One is we obviously are closely invested in the stability of Afghanistan and continuing to work with the central government that is making some important decisions that will preserve security and making the kind of investments that are critical to maintaining that stability,” he said.

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