After Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s visit to the White House yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reports that “President Barack Obama is expected to back a revised U.S. troop withdrawal plan that would keep more American forces in the country for a longer period than initially planned.”  

“While regular U.S. troops no longer carry out combat missions in Afghanistan and the size of the American military force in the country has been cut to 10,000 troops from 100,000 since 2012, Mr. Ghani wants to ensure that American forces remain in the country for years to come.”  

“Mr. Obama wants to withdraw most of the remaining U.S. forces before he leaves office in 2017, but that hope is being tested by Islamic State-affiliated fighters and Taliban militants opposing Afghan security forces… Mr. Obama is likely to pursue efforts to create a more-limited American presence to help advise Afghan forces, collect intelligence on militants in the region and carry out limited counterterrorism operations.”