The US is to accelerate its troops’ drawdown pace from Afghanistan. There are 66,000 American forces currently deployed in Afghanistan. US President Barack Obama at a press conference with President Hamid Karzai on Friday, January 11, announced that he is accelerating the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, with all the American forces moving this spring into a largely training and advisory role and Afghan troops taking the lead throughout the country in fighting the Taliban-led insurgency.

Details of the new withdrawal plan is expected to be made public in the coming few weeks. And the reason, as has been stated by President Obama, is the growing strength of Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). ANSF is now leading about 85 percent of operations against insurgents. The other NATO countries might also announce resembling plans for their troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Sooner or later the US had to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan. The Obama administration is under high pressure from its public. The Afghan war has been the longest in history of the US and it needs to cut down its military expense to counter the risks facing the American economy. Prolonging the expensive war in Afghanistan is what most of the Americans oppose.

Now that US troops are going home earlier than planned what is vital is the process of training and equipping the ANSF. At current in most of the operations led by ANSF, the NATO forces provide air and logistics support. Afghanistan is in dire need of a strong Air Force. Making the Afghan Air Force stronger is only possible if it is provided with adequate number of fighting jets, helicopters and other such needs. At the same time, the Afghan ground forces would need more training, military equipment and logistics.

The important announcement most of the people in Afghanistan are waiting for is the decision of the US on how many forces its will keep inside Afghanistan after 2014 and what will be their roles. The US authorities have confirmed that a certain number of US forces will remain in Afghanistan to support and train the ANSF. The main purpose of post-2014 presence of the US troops will be keeping an eye over al-Qaida and preventing its attacks on the US and its allies.

Obama’s decision to speed up the pace of withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan means that the process of training and equipping the ANSF would need to be accelerated. More training, latest weapons and other war equipment and a promising air force will make the ANSF more confident while standing against Taliban and their affiliates.