Afgt Situation News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Deaths are 25 too muany, particularly for the families of the fallen. but understand relative to what's -- what was involved when we were in an active combat role and actively engaged in a war in afghanistan was a very different scenario. so, here you have a situation where we have clarity about what our mission is, we have a partner who wants to work with us, we're going to continually make adjustments to ensure we give the success, and we'll continue to evaluate this as we go forward as will the next president. as conditions aimprove, we'll be in a position to make further adjustments. a con...

The president, this is part of his legacy. he hoped to end two wars by the time he leaves office. >> as with speak, more than 3,000 troops in afghanistan, 9800 in afghanistan. that will stay there through 2015. 5500, that will stay there as you take a look at the podium, as president obama announces he'll maintain current troop levels in afghanistan this year and next year as well. this largely, jim sciutto, on the advice of military officials who have been studying the situation on the ground. the u.s. military wanted this decision. why? >> because of the reality on the ground. the fall of ku...

It's the right thing to do. my god bless or troops and all who keep us safe and may god continue to bless america. [ inaudible ] >> reporter: can you tell us how disappointing -- >> this decision is not disappointing. continually my goal has been to make sure that we give every opportunity for afghanistan to succeed while we're still making sure we meet our core missions. as i've continually said, my approach is to assess the situation on the ground, figure out what's working, figure out what's not working, make adjustments where necessary. this isn't the first time those adjustments have been...

10,000 remain in support of these very focused missions. i meet regularly with my national sxurt team to continually assess honestly the situation on the ground. to determine where our strategy is working and where we may need greater flexibility. i've insisted consistently that our strategy focus on the development of a sustainable afghan capacity and self-sufficiency. when we've needed additional forces to advance that goal or we've needed to make adjustments in terms of our timetables, we've made those adjustments. today want to update the american people on our efforts. since taking the le...

Ministerial. you do an analysis and say here's the mission and what we need to conduct that. 9800 will hit the two missions -- the counterterrorism and the train and equip mission of afghan force. that will occupy their time. when you talk about a resurgence of al qaeda, potential new isis targets and an increased resurgence of taliban, the counterterrorism force is going to have to be larger. at same time, the emphasis on training and equipping more of the afghan security forces is going to have to go at a higher pace. you need more forces to do that. >> jim sciutto? >> a couple points here. ...