Thursday, June 16, 2011

Petraeus Gives Obama Recommendations on Afghanistan

I wish Obama would surprise us and withdraw all the troops or more than expected, but it's not likely. Gen. David Petraeus presented Obama his recommendations yesterday. Obama is expected to announce his plan for troop drawdown soon.
The Obama administration is seeking ways to curtail its military involvement in Afghanistan as U.S. budget pressures grow and public support dwindles for the nearly 10-year-old war.

Carney restated on Thursday that an initial drawdown would begin in July and said Obama would announce "relatively soon" how quickly and how many troops would be withdrawn.

The White House had been awaiting recommendations from Petraeus before fixing that plan. Petraeus has been nominated to become the new chief of the CIA.

The number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan has grown sharply since Obama took office, to 100,000 today from about 34,000 in early 2009. Read it at Reuters