Because this actually is just in and breaking news........
Obama: 33,000 US troops to come home by next summer'Time to focus on nation-building here at home,' he says in announcing Afghan pullouthttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43493037/ns ... hite_houseWASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he has decided to bring 33,000 American troops home from the 10-year-old war in Afghanistan by next summer.
In a nationally televised speech outlining a shift in U.S. policy, Obama said that after the initial reduction, more troops will be pulled out of Afghanistan at a steady pace as Afghans take over their own security by 2014.
"Huge challenges remain. This is the beginning — but not the end of our effort to wind down this war," Obama said. "America, it is time to focus on nation building at home."
Obama said that 10,000 troops will be transferred out of Afghanistan by the end of this year and the full 33,000 deployed as part of the "surge" ordered in 2009 will come home no later than September 2012.
"The tide of war is receding," he said to war-weary Americans eager for an exit to the conflict.
Obama said the United States is able to remove troops as al-Qaida is under more pressure than at any time since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that precipitated the war.
He said the United States will join initiatives aimed at reconciling the Afghan people, including the Taliban, as the Afghan government and security forces are strengthened.
Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the president's time frame for withdrawal from Afghanistan wasn't aggressive enough.
"It has been the hope of many in Congress and across the country that the full drawdown of U.S. forces would happen sooner than the president laid out — and we will continue to press for a better outcome," Pelosi said in a statement.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner, meanwhile, said in a statement that "continuing to degrade al-Qaida's capabilities in Afghanistan and the surrounding region must take priority over any calendar dates."
Obama's decision on a full withdrawal of surge troops was somewhat of a surprise. Earlier reports put the expected withdrawal at 5,000 troops by this summer and 5,000 more by winter or spring 2012, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
Obama's decision on a quicker drawdown is also a victory for Vice President Joe Biden, the New York Times reported. Biden has long argued for cutting back on the American military engagement in Afghanistan. The plan is also seen as a setback Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Afghanistan, who had recommended limited withdrawals to avoid losing fragile gains.
Two administration officials told The Times that Petraeus did not endorse the decision, though both Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is retiring, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reluctantly accepted it.
A senior Pentagon official told NBC News that Pentagon and military officials had argued against pulling all 33,000 surge troops out of Afghanistan "in the middle of the fighting season," next summer. According to the official, the military clearly wanted as many of the surge forces as possible "through next year's fighting season," which would end in October.
The official added, however, that the president's decision, "may be the least of the bad options." The official said the White House had first proposed that all surge forces be pulled out by the end of this year.
One Pentagon official suggested that the president's decision to pull the troops out by Sept. 1 is clearly a political deadline, tied to the November elections.
But according to a senior administration official, the rationale for the withdrawal had more to do with the situation on the ground in Afghanistan.
"We haven't seen a terrorist threat emanating from Afghanistan for the past seven or eight years," the official said. Scattered "al-Qaida types" are focused on tactical fighting inside Afghanistan, he said. "They are focused inside Afghanistan with no indication at all that there is any effort within Afghanistan to use Afghanistan as a launching pad to carry out attacks outside of Afghan borders."
The withdrawals would put the U.S. on a path toward giving Afghans control of their security by 2014 and ultimately shifting the U.S. military from a combat role to a mission focused on training and supporting Afghan forces.
But serious doubts remain about whether Afghan forces, plagued by desertion and illiteracy, will be up to the task.
A Pew Research poll released on Tuesday found a record 56 percent of Americans favor bringing U.S. forces in Afghanistan home as quickly as possible.
"There's almost no decision Obama can make that's a good one," said Robert Lamb, a conflict expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "We are in an economic crisis and this an expensive war. On the other hand, we can't leave an Afghanistan that is unstable — it's not in our interest to be seen as cutting and running."
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I mentioned in one of my recent posts that there will be those who think that the troops reductions are to big, as is the case of John Boehner and those who, like Nancy Pelosi who don't think the reduction are big enough as per the article. Then there are those of us in the middle who believe that the reductions are a step in the right direction. On the other hand of course, there are those whose deep rooted hatred towards Obama, whether it's the birther thing, the Moslem thing, because of the color of his skin or a combination of all of the above, will never accept what 55% of the voters chose.
Solution? Well, I feel it's a positive step in the right direction, and the money that won't be spent over there should be spent to protect social security, move us closer to a public option in health care and promote smaller mom and pop shop family owned businesses and farms so they can compete against the mega-monopoly multi-national corporations.
Here in Michigan, Govenor Snyder (R) just signed the partisan budget into law that the state Senate and House majorities passed which raises taxes on seniors, eliminates tax credits for home buyers and small business, while giving massive corporate welfare, tax breaks and handouts to those who sent our jobs out of the country.
The language for most of the recalls has been approved, but the requirments make it virtually impossible to toss out the govenor, despite that his approval rating is the second lowest in the country, and decreasing exponentially. There is serious buyers remorse going on here. On the plus side, it's likely to give a massive spike of support towards the other direction for the upcoming 2012 elections.
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