President Trump On Afghanistan: 'We Are Not Nation-Building...We Are Killing Terrorists' (Watch)

ARLINGTON, VA — In what many will view as a departure from his campaign stance against deeper involvement in fraught foreign conflicts, President Trump announced plans for continued American military operations in the Afghanistan War. The president assured the American people that this move was not a grand overseas venture, but a strategic effort to advance U.S. interests abroad.

"My original instinct was to pull out, and historically I like following my instincts, but all of my life I heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office," he said. "The consequences of a rapid exit are both predictable and unacceptable… A hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum that terrorists – including ISIS and Al Qaeda – would instantly fill, just as happened before September 11th."

Though his speech was billed as an announcement of his updated Afghanistan policy, Trump offered few specifics about what it would entail. He did not provide a number of additional troops that will be sent to the war, though U.S. officials said ahead of the speech they expect him to go along with a Pentagon recommendation for nearly 4,000 new troops. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

“We are not nation-building again,” he said. “We are killing terrorists.”

President Trump Recommits US To Afghanistan War

There are roughly 8,400 American forces in Afghanistan now. At its peak, the U.S. had roughly 100,000 forces there, under the Obama administration in 2010-2011.

"We will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities," Trump said. "Conditions on the ground, not arbitrary timetables, will guide our strategy from now on."

Trump said the American people are "weary of war without victory."

"I share the America people's frustration," Trump said at the Army's Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from the White House. Still, he insisted that "in the end, we will win."

According to the material released by the White House Press Office, Trump was to offer updates on the "path forward for America’s engagement in Afghanistan and South Asia." The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 after the September 11 attacks, where forces have fought the ceaseless war for almost 16 years — making it the longest American war in history.

As a candidate, Trump criticized the war and said the U.S. should quickly pull out, but he also campaigned on a vow to start winning wars. Exiting now, with the Taliban resurgent, would be impossible to sell as victory.

"I think there's a relative certainty that the Afghan government would eventually fall," said Mark Jacobson, an Army veteran and NATO's former deputy representative in Kabul.

Reports suggested that many of Trump's advisers, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis, have advocated for an increase in troop levels to provide training to the Afghanistan military. Former Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, who was ousted from the White House on Friday, reportedly opposed additional U.S. involvement in the region.

"New #AfghanStrategy based on the conditions on ground not on arbitrary numbers and timelines is the right approach," tweeted Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, a frequent critic of the president.

Trump tweeted Saturday that he had reached a decision on the way forward in Afghanistan, a day after he reviewed war options with his national security team at a meeting at Camp David, Maryland.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Sunday hailed the launch of the Afghan Army's new special operations corps and declared that "we are with you and we will stay with you."

Watch Trump's speech below.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images