the U.S. military launched an invasion of Iraq in 2003 , toppling the Saddam Hussein regime and battling insurgents for years until that war began to wind down in the last couple of years . But the Afghan conflict persists as the United States and its allies battle tenacious militants from the Taliban militant movement . Obama said as the Iraq war ends , America is `` pressing forward in Afghanistan '' and faces a `` tough fight '' against a nimble insurgency . `` From Marja to Kandahar , that is what the Taliban has done through assassination , indiscriminate killing and intimidation , '' Obama said , referring to the main militant and two southern Afghan battlegrounds . `` And any country that has known decades of war will be tested in finding political solutions to its problems , and providing governance that can sustain progress and serve the needs of its people . '' Obama said that even though the nature of the war has changed in the past nine years , it remains just as important as it was after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon . He said the United States
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- President Obama told West Point graduates that the United States faces `` difficult days ahead '' in its fight against insurgents in Afghanistan and said that the threat posed by al Qaeda operatives across the globe `` will not go away soon . '' Speaking at the U.S. Military Academy commencement in New York , Obama praised the graduates for their achievements and laid out a scenario of military and societal challenges in what is the ninth West Point commencement during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the fight against international terrorism . `` This time of war began in Afghanistan , a place that may seem as far from this peaceful bend in the Hudson River as anywhere on Earth , '' Obama said , referring to a conflict that started after the al Qaeda terror network attacked the United States on September 11 , 2001 . `` The war began only because our own cities and civilians were attacked by violent extremists who plotted from that distant place , and it continues only because that plotting persists to this day . '' While the United States and its allies battled in Afghanistan ,