President Obama has officially reversed course and announced he has halted the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Speaking at the White House Thursday, Obama described the Afghanistan War as “vital to our national security interests” and said U.S. forces will continue to go after al-Qaeda.

President Obama: “First, I’ve decided to maintain our current posture of 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through most of next year, 2016. Their mission will not change. Our troops will continue to pursue those two narrow tasks that I outlined earlier: training Afghan forces and going after al-Qaeda. But maintaining our current posture through most of next year, rather than a more rapid drawdown, will allow us to sustain our efforts to train and assist Afghan forces as they grow stronger, not only during this fighting season, but into the next one.”

Across the United States, military families reacted to the news. In Oceanside, California, the father of an active-duty soldier expressed concern over the prolonging of occupation.

Charles Edwards: “I was truly, truly hoping, because my son has less than a year to complete his 20 years. I was truly, truly hoping that he would be getting out, but he signed on for two more years prior to this announcement. He and I have some talking to do.”

We’ll have more with Intercept co-founder and reporter Jeremy Scahill on the U.S. war in Afghanistan later, as well as his explosive new report in The Intercept, “The Drone Papers.”