President Obama announced a plan Thursday to keep 5,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan into 2017. The change from his stated goal of 1,000 U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan by the end of his term is an effort to combat the recent resurgence of Taliban, al-Qaeda and ISIS militants in the region.• Quote: “The president made a very tough but correct decision,” says Duke University law professor Charles Dunlap Jr., a former deputy judge advocate general of the U.S. Air Force. “Although the actual combat capability of this number of troops is still rather modest, it will be a psychological boost to the Afghans while at the same time sending a message to the Taliban, ISIS and other terrorist groups that they cannot simply wait out the U.S.” “If American troops had departed on the original schedule, it might have precipitated a flight of the very Afghans and foreign investors that are needed if we are ever to have stability there. A collapse of the Afghan government would be a disaster, especially for women who would suffer the most if the Taliban regained power.”• Bio: Charles Dunlap Jr., a professor of the practice at Duke Law School and executive director of Duke's Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, specializes in warfare policy and strategy, cyber-warfare, military commissions, counterinsurgency, nuclear issues and air power. He is a former deputy judge advocate general of the U.S. Air Force who retired from the military in June 2010 as a major general.http://www.law.duke.edu/fac/dunlap• Archive video interview (different subject): http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/13737677/• For additional comment, contact Dunlap at:dunlap@law.duke.edu
