Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The new year will open with as many as 10,800 U.S. troops still in Afghanistan, 1,000 more than President Barack Obama pledged, with transition plans running several months behind, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said.
Obama 'has provided U.S. military commanders the flexibility to manage any temporary force shortfall that we might experience for a few months,' the departing defense secretary told reporters in Kabul today, after arriving for what amounts to a farewell tour to review the status of the war and pay tribute to the 800,000 U.S. troops who have served there since 2001.
While Hagel said Obama's plan to withdraw all but 9,800 troops will be breached only for the first few months of 2015, the decision underscores continuing tensions between military commanders concerned that Afghan forces aren't ready to stave off the Taliban and a president determined to keep his promise to end America's longest war.
'Essentially President Obama has just bought some time.'
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel
Under the plan Obama announced in May, the American deployment will drop to about 5,500 troops by the end of 2015, and to about 1,000 by the beginning of 2017, when he leaves office.
Hagel said delays in the Afghan election process and in the signing of a bilateral security agreement created the need to retain more troops than planned for a few months as U.S. allies commit their forces to the continuing mission.
'Essentially President Obama has just bought some time,' Hagel said at a joint press conference with President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani.
'Set Everybody Back'
'The election process took longer and that set everybody back,' Hagel said. 'That doesn't undermine, doesn't change, the president's policy. It does not undermine anything.'
The trip comes a day after Obama announced he will nominate Ashton Carter, a former deputy defense secretary, to succeed Hagel, who is resigning under pressure amid policy disputes with the White House and mutual antipathy toward Obama's national security staff. While Hagel issued a statement praising Carter, he scrapped plans to attend the White House nomination ceremony before taking off for Kabul.
Even with the extra troops staying for several months, the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan is ending this month as planned, Hagel said, leaving a smaller force in the next two years to focus on counterterrorism and training Afghan troops. 'Our combat role is over,' he said.
Obama has authorized a continuation of some offensive air and ground operations to support Afghan forces, which Hagel referred to today as 'limited combat enabler support.'
Taliban Bombings
With a Taliban offensive under way, Kabul has become the scene of daily bombings. At least 10 attacks late last month killed scores of victims and led to the resignation of the capital city's police chief.
In comments to reporters on his plane en route to Kabul, Hagel dismissed the uptick in violence by the Taliban as 'not unpredictable' and showed no sign of further reassessing the withdrawal timetable, as some former administration officials and military analysts have urged.
'I don't see any strategic or major shift in policy,' Hagel said, though commanders have 'wide flexibility and latitude' to adjust troop numbers and locations within the two-year withdrawal framework.
Corruption, Dependence
Some U.S. military and intelligence officials have said that Afghan security forces, plagued by corruption and dependent on some U.S. assistance, can't gain the upper hand over the Taliban and their allies, who maintain safe havens in neighboring Pakistan and increasingly in parts of Afghanistan.
A U.S. defense official, who briefed reporters traveling with Hagel on condition of anonymity, said Afghan forces have been taking the lead in 99 percent of military operations. Even so, they need aviation and intelligence support that the U.S. will continue to provide next year, the official said.
'I have confidence the Afghan security forces have the capacity to defend Kabul,' Hagel said.
In addition to meeting with Ghani, Hagel will talk with the president's election opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, who was made the country's chief executive officer in a U.S.-forged compromise, and with General John Campbell, the top commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Hagel, the first enlisted combat veteran to serve as defense secretary, also plans to visit U.S. troops.
'I want to thank our men and women who are serving there,' he said. 'With the holidays closing in, it's a tough time for people.'
More than 2,300 Americans have died in the 13-year Afghanistan war, which began as an effort to oust the Taliban from power after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. More than 20,000 U.S. troops have been wounded.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Lerman in Kabul, Afghanistan, at dlerman1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net Bernard Kohn
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