Withdrawal From Afghanistan Will Likely Be Slow

[tekisui]

Source: The Atlantic

It's safe to say that Gen. David Petraeus will not present President Obama with a proposal to significantly reduce the footprint of the U.S. military forces in Afghanistan. Correspondingly, Obama doesn't see the need for a major course correction, even though he is impatient to end the war.

The general, in Washington for his CIA confirmation hearings, will provide input important to the White House's pending Afghanistan strategy review, the results of which are due in July. But unlike past deliberations, which were carried out quasi-publicly through leaks and speeches, this one will be short, efficient, and largely quiet, White House officials said. There will be few formal meetings and very little public markers of decision points. Petraeus is reportedly hand-carrying his recommendations, has yet to share them with major flag and general officers, and has not committed them to an electronic format, lest they leak.

Within the next few weeks, Obama will announce his decision about the pace of the transition. A small interagency review has already finished its work, which will provide the broader context for Petraeus's recommendations.

A White House official said that Obama has not yet decided whether his order will apply to all 130,000 NATO troops in the region, whether he will adjust the withdrawal pace to account for predicted surges in violence over the summer, or whether he will simply announce that a certain number of troops will return home by a certain date. Although some advisers had hoped that the significant progress made against al-Qaida in the past several months would allow Obama to accelerate the withdrawal, the president himself has not indicated that he is yet ready to take this gamble. (If he is, he has kept it to himself.)

more: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/06/withdrawal-from-afghanistan-will-likely-be-slow/240509/

[Marblehead]

1. or not

[tekisui]

3. The most recent developments are that we will have forces there

at least until the start of 2015. And, Karzai has been in negotiations with the US to have US military presence there for decades.

[Hawkowl]

2. Obama is not a leader

A compromiser. A capitulater. A fixer. But not a leader. If he hewed to the line of his idol, Abraham Lincoln, he would have fired a dozen generals by now for not following a clearly defined strategy to achieve specific goals. Or at least read an emancipation proclamation for Afghani slaves...

[ej510]

4. We will never and I mean never leave Afghanistan and here is why.

Report: $1 trillion in untapped minerals found in Afghanistan

Geologists working with the Pentagon have found vast reserves of untapped minerals in Afghanistan that could be worth $1 trillion, the New York Times reports.

U.S. government officials told the Times the discovery could be enough to drastically alter the economy in the war-torn country and perhaps the actual war itself. The Times cites an internal Pentagon memo, which says the country could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium."

The discovery was heralded by military and government officials in the U.S. and Afghanistan alike.

“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, told the Times. “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”

Cont'd at the link: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/14/report-1-trillion-in-untapped-minerals-found-in-afghanistan/

[Marblehead]

5. american tax payers

will pick up the tab, no problem, we have way too much anyway.