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| Politics
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| US accelerates Afghan withdrawal, |
| US accelerates Afghan withdrawal, endorses Taliban talks
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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
, 12-January-2013
5:0:30 AM |
| American President Barack Obama has announced a faster than planned withdrawal of the 66,000 U.S troops from Afghanistan. President Obama made it clear that American troops would not be part of 'most' combat operations by the spring of this year. Combat operations were originally scheduled to be tapered off by the summer. U.S and other coalition forces are working on a timetable to move to training, advising and assisting Afghan troops. But, the President stopped short of specifics on numbers being withdrawn or answering the question of exactly how many troops would remain after 2014. The end of 2014 is the timeline set for only a residual U.S force to remain. The announcement came in a press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Washington.
'RESPONSIBLE' END TO WAR
Speaking alongside his Afghan counterpart, President Obama said, 'This year, we'll mark another milestone - Afghan forces will take the lead for security across the entire country. And by the end of next year, 2014, the transition will be complete -Afghans will have full responsibility for their security, and this war will come to a responsible end."
The timetable of the U.S withdrawal is in marked contrast to how Barack Obama shifted the U.S military's focus from Iraq to Afghanistan, when he campaigned to be America's first black President. In 2008 in a foreign policy speech he had said, 'In fact - as should have been apparent to President Bush and Senator McCain - the central front in the war on terror is not Iraq, and it never was. That's why the second goal of my new strategy will be taking the fight to Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is unacceptable that almost seven years after nearly 3,000 Americans were killed on our soil; the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 are still at large. Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahari are recording messages to their followers and plotting more terror. The Taliban controls parts of Afghanistan.
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