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No plan for a US exit from Afghanistan for now | The Obama administration has reportedly told American military forces to remain in Afghanistan for as long as required, and added that it is wrong to assume that
an early exit is in the offing. The announcement was made to counter criticism
that President Obama had sent the wrong signal in his war-strategy speech last
week by projecting July 2011 as the start of a withdrawal. According to the New
York Times, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton and other top administration officials used the medium of television to
scotch rumours of an early troop pullout. They said that any pullout thought off,
would begin slowly in July 2011. Americans would only be starting to transfer
security responsibilities to Afghan forces under Obama's new plan, they added.
The television appearances by the senior members of Mr. Obama's war council seemed
to be part of a focused and determined effort to ease concerns about the president's
emphasis on setting a date for reducing America's presence in Afghanistan after
more than eight years of war. "We have strategic interests in South Asia that
should not be measured in terms of finite times," said Gen. James L. Jones, the
president's national security adviser, speaking on CNN's "State of the Union."
"We're going to be in the region for a long time." Gates also played down the
significance of the July 2011 target date. "There isn't a deadline," Gates said
on CBS's "Face the Nation." "What we have is a specific date on which we will
begin transferring responsibility for security district by district, province
by province in Afghanistan, to the Afghans," he added. Appearing on "Fox News
Sunday," CENTCOM chief General David Petraeus said that the Obama administration
was not planning a "rush to the exits" in Afghanistan, and that depending on the
security conditions there could be tens of thousands of American troops in Afghanistan
for several years. |
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