President Obama Pledges to “Finish the Job” in Afghanistan
May 2, 2012
President Barack Obama, addressing the American public from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan on May 1, pledged to “finish the job” and end the Afghan War. He noted, however, that the United States would not “cut and run” from Afghanistan and would meet long-term Afghan financial and security needs. He stated that at the forthcoming NATO summit in Chicago the alliance would “set a goal for Afghan forces to be in the lead for combat operations across the country next year. . . . I will not keep Americans in harm’s way a single day longer than is absolutely required for our national security. But we must finish the job we started in Afghanistan, and end this war responsibly.”
Earlier in the day, President Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed an agreement broadly outlining the U.S. role in Afghanistan after the combat mission ends, currently scheduled for 2014. The United States went to war in Afghanistan nearly 11 years ago, following the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. The aim was to root out al-Qa`ida militants based in Afghanistan and track down the terrorist organization’s leaders who had planned the attacks.
President Barack Obama of the United States (The White House)
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan (AP/Wide World)
There are currently more than 130,000 troops from 50 countries serving in Afghanistan under NATO command: 90,000 from the United States; 9,500 from the United Kingdom; 4,800 from Germany; and 3,600 from France. At least 2,700 troops from the United States and its partners have died in the war, the majority of them Americans.
Additional World Book articles:
- Osama bin Laden
- Taliban
- Afghanistan 2001 (a Back in Time article)
- Afghanistan 2002 (a Back in Time article)
- Afghanistan 2008 (a Back in Time article)
- Afghanistan 2009 (a Back in Time article)
- Afghanistan 2010 (a Back in Time article)
- Afghanistan 2011 (a Back in Time article)
