Blake Hall
In his meeting with President Obama Tuesday, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani is expected to try and convince him to not pull American troops out of his Asian country … just yet. He will undoubtedly cite the recent and quite furious Taliban insurgency as the reason for the extended assistance.
The White House has pledged to withdraw all but 1,000 troops by the time Obama leaves office in 2017, with the military force of 10,000 currently in the country reduced by half in the next few months.
“The question is how much flexibility is there in the drawdown between where we stand today and that end point in early 2017,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest, in a meeting with reporters Monday. “President Ghani has indicated a desire to bring that up and discuss that personally with the president.”
The talks will take place Tuesday morning where they’ll transition to the Old Family Dining Room of the White House for a “working lunch”.
Ghani will further his campaign in an address to a joint meeting of Congress Wednesday and a visit to the United Nations in New York City slotted for Thursday.