Obama, Karzai Agree To Speed Military Transition By Julie Pace and Robert Burns | Associated Press | 1/11/2013 Excerpts: WASHINGTON (AP) President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Friday they have agreed to speed up slightly the schedule for moving Afghanistan's security forces into the lead across the country, with U.S. troops shifting fully to a support role. The leaders also said Obama agreed to place battlefield detainees under the control of the Afghan government. Obama, appearing in the East Room of the White House with Karzai at his side, said accelerating the transition to Afghan security control this spring would set the stage for further withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign forces, although he did not say how quickly a U.S. drawdown would be carried out this year and next. There are now 66,000 U.S. troops there. Karzai was greeted at the Pentagon by a ceremonial honor guard, and at a photo-taking session in Panetta's office. "Starting this spring our troops will have a different mission: training, advising and assisting Afghan forces," Obama said. "It will be a historic moment." He added later that even in a backup role he could not rule out that U.S. troops could be drawn into combat. U.S. commanders in Afghanistan have proposed keeping 6,000 to 15,000 U.S. troops after 2014 to continuing pursuing terrorists and training Afghan security forces. But the White House, which tends to favor lower troop levels than the generals do, says Obama would be open to pulling all U.S. forces out of Afghanistan at the end of 2014. Both Kerry and Hagel are likely to favor a more rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces. read more: http://netscape.compuserve.com/news....htm&sc=+&photoid=20121180WHCD102&floc=NW_1-T ...... There are just so many times that you can kick-the-war-can-down-the-road, and it appears President Obama and the Pentagon have reached nearly the end of the line in getting free of GW Bushs Wars. Hopefully they will now bring ALL of our troops home that are situated in strategic areas across the globe, as being the globe war police is now getting a bit old, and we cannot afford any more war BS; our own country needs rehabilitation, rebuilding, and revamping as our highways, bridges and infrastructure are old and crumbling while we fund a bloated Pentagon, and drag on long and costly wars. Our priorities should be in rebuilding America, providing jobs for those that want them, and stabilizing the middle class. We need making our federal tax laws more equitable for the middle class, taking away all the deductibles, incentives, and subsidies that the wealthy get that the middle class do not, making the middle class pay more on their earnings than the wealthy do on their earnings.
