A frustrated Afghanistan was unavailable for comment.
Posted on 06/21/2011 3:30:44 PM PDT by Hojczyk
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.
The withdrawal has created deep divisions in Washington. The defence secretary, Robert Gates, argued for a modest reduction – at one point as low as 2,000 – citing the advice of US commanders in Afghanistan that they need to protect gains made during the winter against the Taliban.
But senior White House staff, conscious that the president has an election to fight next year, argued in favour of a reduction that would send a signal to the US public that an end to the war is in sight.
The accelerated drawdown will dismay American and British commanders in Kabul, who have privately expressed concern that the White House is now being driven by political rather than military imperatives.
"This is not something we feel entirely comfortable with," a Whitehall official told the Guardian.
Obama's nationally televised address, the sixth he has given since becoming president, is intended to mark the beginning of the end of American military deployment in Afghanistan, from a present high of almost 100,000 troops.
The White House confirmed that the withdrawal will be "significant".
Obama's decision is aimed at placating an American public tired of a 10-year war that has cost 1,522 US lives. The killing of Osama bin Laden added impetus to calls to pull out.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
So the Idiot, knows more than our military???
Just...wow
We have to look to Europe for decent journalism.
Let America and her future go to Hell in a hand-basket when it’s all about the me-my-andI, for the first time in his adult life proud of USA president.
Naturally all this was covered in Panetta’s confirmation hearings and his nomination was delayed until Obama addressed the concerns ... right? Hey, speak up, I can’t hear you over the chirping of the crickets.
Wait a minute! Didn’t he (or one of his cronies) say just yesterday that any decision on withdrawal would be based on the judgment of the commanders in the field?! What a baldfaced liar he is!
The guy has done nothing but golf, vacation, party and now he tells our Military to ‘get use to it’ I'WON...and he will make all decisions.
He has chosen to make this big speech from the White House, while his wife, daughters,and Michelle's family members and many friends VACATION in Africa
oh god...hurry up 2012
I can smell the politics in this call...
but it is the right call.
We’re not going to accomplish what needs to be accomplished there, so get out.
Generals play politics, too.
Since the MSM no longer reports on the war, he can go ahead and screw that up, too.
We HAVE to get a Republican into the WH!
I want the most conservative, but I WILL CAMPAIGN my heartout for anyone the Reps end up picking because we HAVE TO GET RID OF THIS TRAITOR!!HE IS DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY.
btw... I can’t stand to hear Hunstman talk,,OH God help us in 2012!
Thats twice in one day as The Telegraph reported earlier on Mama Obama’s reception by a prison minister in South Africa.
Cut and run.
The only victory that matters is elections to Obozo.
He needs to raise that billion, so once he makes this speech he can go out to his base and tell them that he finally kept one of the promises he made when they elected him, so please get those debit cards back out and hit his website for a quick $20 donation.
That’s exactly what this is all about, Pentagon be damned.
treasonous bastard!!! he will have the blood of U.S. service men on his hands!!!! Impeach him??? Hell he deserves a trial and the appropriate sentence!!!!
There is always mass resignation. especially among the senior officer corp
It is a volunteer military
Obuma needs to be impeached, tried for TREASON and put behind bars.
In Liberty...
A frustrated Afghanistan was unavailable for comment.
Apparently I’m in the minority here, but I say bring them all home. What is it we’re trying to accomplish in Afghanistan exactly? What does victory look like? I’m tired of our men getting killed to defend a 13th century culture that won’t change regardless of what we do.
Civ! ROFL!
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