Analysis: Afghanistan timeline provokes concerns

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Analysis: Afghanistan timeline provokes concerns
By Leo Shane III and Kevin Baron, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, December 3, 2009

WASHINGTON — From Capitol Hill to Kabul, the question about President Barack Obama’s new Afghanistan strategy was the same on Wednesday: How can the United States be all-in in Afghanistan while simultaneously preparing to get out?

In his speech at the United States Military Academy at West Point on Tuesday evening, Obama simultaneously declared that he will speed 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan over the next six months but also begin to withdraw U.S. forces from the embattled nation by July 2011.

That left many critics to interpret the president’s Afghan plan less as a troop buildup and more as an exit plan for the war there, and fueled questions about whether the White House is committed to the fight or already looking for a way out.

Obama pitched the July 2011 timeline for the start of a security handover to Afghan troops as proof that America does not have an “open-ended commitment” to a country where 849 American soldiers have lost their lives since the war begin eight years ago. No final withdrawal date has been set, and the pace of drawdowns will be dictated by the security situation in Afghanistan, U.S. officials said.

“But it will be clear to the Afghan government — and, more importantly, to the Afghan people — that they will ultimately be responsible for their own country,” Obama said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66431