Obama says it's not U.S. responsibility to make Afghanistan a perfect place

Reuters

27 May 2014 at 3:12 pm

U.S. President Barack Obama delivers an announcement on the number of U.S. troops that will remain in Afghanistan after the formal troop drawdown at the end of this year, in the White House Rose Garden in Washington, May 27, 2014. REUTERS/Larry Downing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday in announcing a plan to leave 9,800 troops in Afghanistan in 2015 that Afghanistan will not be a perfect place and it is not up to the United States to make it one. Anticipating criticism of his decision for a near-total U.S. pullout at the end of 2016, Obama said Afghanistan security forces have shown they are capable of defending their country. "We have to recognize that Afghanistan will not be a perfect place and it is not America's responsibility to make it one," Obama said in the White House Rose Garden. (Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Bill Trott)

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