Tonight President Barack Obama announced a plan for the withdrawal of the 33,000 “surge” troops he ordered to Afghanistan in 2009. 10,000 of the troops will be home by the end of this year, and 23,000 more will return by September of next year. It’s the start of a full withdrawal process slated for completion in 2014″
Calling the deployment of the surge “one of the most difficult decisions that I’ve made as president,” Obama said the military campaign was “meeting our goals” in Afghanistan and the drawdown would begin “from a position of strength.”
A position of strength? Is he forgetting about the 500 Taliban who escaped from a Kandahar prison just shy of two months ago? So far as I’ve been able to find, police were able to round up 65 of them a few days later, but I can find no further reports since then. I’d guess most of the escapees are still on the loose.
Meanwhile, insurgents attacked a police station on Saturday. And hey, the Taliban even control some towns.
But, we’re drawing down our troops levels from a position of strength. Sure.
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