奧巴馬計劃在阿富汗保留近萬駐軍
U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to shed more light on his foreign policy goals during a commencement address, on Wednesday, to U.S. Military Graduates in West Point, New York.
The speech comes a day after the president outlined his plans for Afghanistan, when the U.S. combat mission in the country closes at the end of this year.
In a White House statement, Mr. Obama said it is time to turn the page on the last decade when so much U.S. foreign policy was focused on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He said 9,800 will remain in Afghanistan by 2015 and less than 1,000 when he leaves office in January 2017.
RAND Corporation South Asia analyst Arturo Munoz says there is concern that the relatively quick draw-down could leave Afghanistan vulnerable.
“What people are arguing for is an advisory mission, a training mission and a special commando-type mission to do raids--you know, special forces - but not with a short cut-off.”
In a VOA interview, Munoz said Mr. Obama may have chosen to lay out his strategy in advance in order to give the Afghan government more time to react.
There are currently 32,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, down from a peak of 100,000.美國總統奧巴馬星期三將在紐約西點軍校畢業典禮上發表演講，預計他將進一步闡述其外交政策。
星期二，奧巴馬概述了有關阿富汗的計劃，美國在阿富汗的戰鬥使命將於今年年底結束。
奧巴馬在白宮發表講話說，現在是把過去這十年這一頁翻過去的時候了，其間美國外交政策非常偏重於阿富汗和伊拉克的兩場戰爭。
奧巴馬說，9800名美軍將在阿富汗駐紮到2015年。在奧巴馬2017年1月離任時，留在阿富汗的軍隊將不會超過1000人。
蘭德公司南亞問題分析家姆諾茲說，有人擔心相對快速的撤軍可能使阿富汗處於危險境地。
姆諾茲在接受美國之音採訪時說，奧巴馬可能選擇提早闡明自己的部署，以使阿富汗政府有更多時間做出反應。
目前美國在阿富汗有3.2萬駐軍，高峯期曾達到10萬人。
