White House National Security Advisor Tony Blinken would not say whether the 9,800 troops Obama plans to leave in Afghanistan after 2014 will be enough to beat back the Taliban.
MSNBC host Alex Wagner asked Blinken Tuesday on her show bluntly if 9,800 troops are enough to repel the Taliban resurgence that Afghanistan has seen over the last two years.
"Alex, first let's put this context," Blinken said, indicating he had no interest in addressing the crux of her question.
"What we're doing is turning the page on a decade of war. When the president came into office we had about 170,000 Americans in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan. He vowed to end both wars responsibly and that's exactly what we're doing, and we've been on a very deliberate trajectory in Afghanistan to continuously draw down our troops as we built up Afghanistan's capacity to deal with its own security problems."
Sens. John McCain (R., Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), and Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) blasted President Obama's announcement today in a joint statement:
The president came into office wanting to end the wars he inherited. But wars do not end just because politicians say so. The president appears to have learned nothing from the damage done by his previous withdrawal announcements in Afghanistan and his disastrous decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq. Today’s announcement will embolden our enemies and discourage our partners in Afghanistan and the region. And regardless of anything the president says tomorrow at West Point, his decision on Afghanistan will fuel the growing perception worldwide that America is unreliable, distracted, and unwilling to lead.
Even Vox's Max Fisher acknowledged Obama's 9,800 troop pronouncement "is in many ways about the U.S. giving up on fighting the Taliban."