Barack Obama And Pentagon Split On Afghanistan Pullout -- The Guardian
US president set to reject military advice by withdrawing more troops from Afghanistan.
Barack Obama is set to reject the advice of the Pentagon by announcing on Wednesday night the withdrawal of up to 30,000 troops from Afghanistan by November next year, in time for the US presidential election.
The move comes despite warnings from his military commanders that recent security gains are fragile. They have been urging him to keep troop numbers high until 2013.
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My Comment: This withdrawal is all about politics and politicians reading the polls and seeing that patience and support among the American electorate to continue being involved in wars like Afghanistan is slowly dissipating away. The Generals and our allies in Afghanistan should consider this 30,000 man withdrawal as a lucky break. I was predicting a 50,000+ withdrawal by election time next year.