McClatchy reports:
The Obama administration has decided to begin publicly walking away from what it once touted as key deadlines in the war in Afghanistan in an effort to de-emphasize President Barack Obama’s pledge that he’d begin withdrawing U.S. forces in July 2011, administration and military officials have told McClatchy.
The new policy will be on display next week during a conference of NATO countries in Lisbon, Portugal, where the administration hopes to introduce a timeline that calls for the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan by 2014, the year when Afghan President Hamid Karzai once said Afghan troops could provide their own security, three senior officials told McClatchy, along with others speaking anonymously as a matter of policy.
The Pentagon also has decided not to announce specific dates for handing security responsibility for several Afghan provinces to local officials and instead intends to work out a more vague definition of transition when it meets with its NATO allies.
What a year ago had been touted as an extensive December review of the strategy now also will be less expansive and will offer no major changes in strategy, the officials told McClatchy. So far, the U.S. Central Command, the military division that oversees Afghanistan operations, hasn’t submitted any kind of withdrawal order for forces for the July deadline, two of those officials told McClatchy.
Never ceases to amaze me how far the Military will go in their quest to waste both money & human lives while in the futile attempt to save face. If they can’t produce a victory in 10 years, costing who really knows the total amount up to now, then what’s the rational for holding out for another 3-4 years? Of course, now that the Republicans regained the House, then the P.O.T.U.S. and his inner circle will kow-tow to the right, with total disregard of what’s in the best interest of the U.S.A. Perhaps, the Constitution should be changed so that all elected bodies stand for reelection every 2 years, that way they either get along or perish.