President Barack Obama is expected to announce this week that 30,000 U.S. “surge” forces will be fully withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, an administration official has told CNN.
via Obama to announce plan to pull 30,000 troops out of Afghanistan – CNN.com.
Here’s Obama in 2008, almost 3 years ago to the day:
Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday that United States needs to focus on Afghanistan in its battle against terrorism.
“The Afghan government needs to do more. But we have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan. And I believe this has to be our central focus, the central front, on our battle against terrorism,” Obama said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Obama said troop levels must increase in Afghanistan.
“For at least a year now, I have called for two additional brigades, perhaps three,” he told CBS. “I think it’s very important that we unify command more effectively to coordinate our military activities. But military alone is not going to be enough.”
He did what he said he would with regards to Afghanistan and now the President must begin to execute a plan to extract our military from Afghanistan without a total descent into chaos.