Ù.S. tô End Afghan Combat Role as Soon as 2013

[Mkitty is pro kitty]

"Panetta Says U.S. to End Afghan Combat Role as Soon as 2013"

BRUSSELS — In a major milestone toward ending a decade of war in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Wednesday that American forces would step back from a combat role there as early as mid-2013, more than a year before all American troops are scheduled to come home.

Mr. Panetta cast the decision as an orderly step in a withdrawal process long planned by the United States and its allies, but his comments were the first time that the United States had put a date on stepping back from its central role in the war. The defense secretary’s words reflected the Obama administration’s eagerness to bring to a close the second of two grinding ground wars it inherited from the Bush administration.

Promising the end of the American combat mission in Afghanistan next year would also give Mr. Obama a certain applause line in his re-election stump speech this year.

Mr. Panetta said no decisions had been made about the number of American troops to be withdrawn in 2013, and he made clear that substantial fighting lies ahead. “It doesn’t mean that we’re not going to be combat-ready; we will be, because we always have to be in order to defend ourselves,” he told reporters on his plane on his way to a NATO meeting in Brussels, where Afghanistan is to be a central focus.

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www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/world/asia/panetta-moves-up-end-to-us-combat-role-in-afghanistan.html?_r=1

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

[billisonboard]

Feb 3, 2012 2:28:20 GMT -5 @patstab said:

,,, They have fought for thousands of years and will likely continue till they blow themselves up.

The only way they would be able to effectively "blow themselves up" enough to end their fighting is if other governments finance and help provide them weapons of greater and greater fire power. Left to their own devises, they could continue to fight each other forever.

[wyouser]

This frees up resources for a war with the Iranians??