Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Thursday he was “pleased” by the president’s pending decision to keep 5,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2016, but pressed for a higher number of troops to stay there, The Hill reported on Oct. 15, 2015.
“I am pleased that President Obama has decided to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan to perform the right missions beyond 2016, both in and outside of Kabul,” he said in a statement.

“However, I am concerned that the number of troops will not be sufficient to perform the critical tasks being set for them: counterterrorism and continuing to train and advise our Afghan partners,” he said.

“It would have been far better to halt all further troop withdrawals and allow President Obama’s successor to determine what is warranted based on conditions on the ground,” he said.
The 5,500 U.S. troops will train and advise Afghan troops, while continuing the U.S. counterterrorism mission against al Qaeda and other terrorists groups. However, McCain said more troops would be needed to be able to do both.
“The bottom line is that 5,500 troops will only be adequate to conduct either the counterterrorism or the train and advise mission, but not both. Our military commanders have said that both are critical to prevent Afghanistan from spiraling into chaos,” he said.
Obama’s decision marks a reversal from his plan to draw down the current 9,800 U.S. troops to a force of 1,000 that would be based at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Campbell, had submitted five options, reportedly including as many as 8,000 troops.
McCain said it was “highly unlikely that a force level of 5,500 troops was recommended as the best professional judgment of our senior military leaders and commanders on the ground in Afghanistan.”
He added it “makes no military sense to withdraw U.S. forces” at a time when the security situation in key parts of the country is deteriorating and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is trying to make inroads there.
“All of us want the war in Afghanistan to be over, but after 14 years of hard-fought gains, the decisions we make now will determine whether our progress will endure and our sacrifices will not have been in vain,” he said.
“When the stakes are so high, it is hard to understand why the President has again chosen to force our military to shoulder a higher level of risk to be successful.”