After the 9/11 attacks on the United States, President George W. Bush promised a swift and decisive war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. But his misguided policies toward Afghanistan turned the Afghan war into a protracted and deadly conflict. Upon taking office, President Barack Obama pledged to end the Afghan War, which was one of the central foreign policy challenges for his administration. He adopted a new strategy for the Afghanistan war to reverse the Taliban’s movements and strengthen the power of the Afghan government. As part of his new strategy, Obama ordered the deployment of additional troops to Afghanistan, to stabilize the country and lay the groundwork for a gradual withdrawal of US troops.