US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan will accelerate

[Jenna]

Uneasy allies, President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai demonstrated Friday they could agree on one big idea: After 11 years of war, the time is right for U.S. forces to let Afghans do their own fighting. U.S. and coalition forces will take a battlefield back seat by spring and, by implication, go home in larger numbers soon thereafter."It will be a historic moment," Obama declared.In a White House meeting billed as a chance to take stock of a war that now ranks as America's longest, Obama and Karzai agreed to accelerate their timetable for putting the Afghanistan army in the lead combat role nationwide. It will happen this spring instead of summer — a shift that looks small but looms larger in the debate over how quickly to bring U.S. troops home and whether some should stay after combat ends in 2014.The two leaders also agreed that the Afghan government would be given full control of detention centers and detainees. They did not reach agreement on an equally sticky issue: whether any U.S. troops remaining after 2014 would be granted immunity from prosecution under Afghan law. Immunity is a U.S. demand that the Afghans have resisted, saying they want assurances on other things — like authority over detainees — first.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...9f94b495789512

[lewisipso]

Pfft. Good luck. They're gonna need it. I expect Al Qaeda will take back over asap.

[keith720]

We should bring ALL of our troops out of there and leave the savages to their own devices. If they are stupid enough to venture out of their territory, bomb the crap out of them.

[bayern]

He needs the troops from Afghanistan to sent to Africa for his meals on wheels scheme to pacify the freedom-loving Africans who yearn for Democracy. Their Rules of Engagement will be so tight that weapons will have to be locked in containers. Mean while Al Qaeda will have a field day at the "shooting gallery." Remember, we have troops in Africa and the Obamas sending more.