Retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden told
Newsmax TV on Thursday that he applauded President Barack Obama's decision on leaving 5,500 soldiers in Afghanistan after leaving office in 2017, but "don't believe we're not going to have Americans in harm's way."
"The defined missions are straightforward: We're going to train the Afghan military, and we're going to conduct counterterror operations," Hayden, who directed both the CIA and the National Security Agency, told "Newsmax Now" hosts John Bachman and Miranda Khan.
"Frankly, counterterror operations are indeed combat operations — and we've also got a little bit of wiggle room in between those two assigned tasks," he added. "We can come to the aid of the Afghan military when it's an extremist, as we did within the past week or so up at Kunduz.
"The president's decision is a good one — a great one, frankly — and reflective of the situation on the ground, not just on a campaign promise," Hayden said.
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He added that while he did not disagree that Obama should have made the decision sooner, "this is a change of direction on the part of the president.
"He had us withdrawing based upon a fixed timeline that had to do with North American political realities, not with South Asian military realities," Hayden added. "This decision is based upon that latter case — and that's why I called it good news and something to be applauded."
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