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White House weighs adjusting Afghan exit plan to slow withdrawal of troops
Washington Post ^ | February 10, 2015 | Missy Ryan

Posted on 02/10/2015 9:21:02 PM PST by Second Amendment First

The Obama administration is considering slowing its planned withdrawal from Afghanistan for the second time, according to U.S. officials, a sign of the significant security challenges that remain despite an end to the U.S. and NATO combat mission there.

Under the still-evolving plans, Army Gen. John F. Campbell, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, could be given greater latitude to determine the pace of the drawdown in 2015 as foreign forces scramble to ensure Afghan troops are capable of battling Taliban insurgents on their own, the officials said.

The options under discussion would not alter what is perhaps the most important date in President Obama’s plan: ending the U.S. military mission entirely by the time he steps down in early 2017.

But officials said Campbell might temporarily retain more than the 5,500 troops slated to remain in Afghanistan at the end of 2015, keep regional training hubs open longer than planned or reorganize plans to close bases including Kandahar Airfield, a major endeavor that would draw troops away from efforts to advise Afghan security forces.

Campbell and top Obama aides are expected to discuss the options at a White House meeting Wednesday.

“The defining elements of the plan are more or less intact,” a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss planning. “All we’re looking at at this point is either variations within those or subtle variations of” the current framework.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; iran; lasthelicopter; nationalsecurityfail; obama; obamamuslim; rop; taliban; warofnecessity
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1 posted on 02/10/2015 9:21:02 PM PST by Second Amendment First
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To: Second Amendment First

Get our troops the hell our of there now. No matter how long we stay there we will never make them accept democracy or anything near that in their thinking.

The longer we stay, the more we become just another tribe (clan, group) and the more troops we lose.

Let them fight their own fight, let them continue to kill one another in their tribal conflicts.


2 posted on 02/10/2015 9:28:59 PM PST by doc1019 (Blue lives matter)
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To: doc1019

They’re not going to do that. That’s the hope of liberals, that the terrorists will consume themselves before organizing sufficiently to go after the Great Satan. Walking out of Afghanistan would be like walking out of Yemen, which already happened.


3 posted on 02/10/2015 9:43:53 PM PST by Olog-hai
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To: doc1019

Not to mention what happened in Iraq once Obama pulled out of there.


4 posted on 02/10/2015 9:44:41 PM PST by Olog-hai
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To: Second Amendment First

Official translation: We don’t have a clue what to do


5 posted on 02/10/2015 9:49:21 PM PST by Cementjungle
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To: Second Amendment First

It wouldn’t worry me so much if ø wasn’t an enemy islamist pig-dog.


6 posted on 02/10/2015 9:54:49 PM PST by onedoug
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To: doc1019
Let them fight their own fight, let them continue to kill one another in their tribal conflicts.

The lesson of Rome is that tribes become confederations, then nations and then empires. They're not doing it for recreation. They're competing for the right to rule. Once the Taliban defeated most of their adversaries in the mid-90's, they provided a training ground for al Qaeda, which then prepared for 9/11.

7 posted on 02/10/2015 9:56:09 PM PST by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Olog-hai

In Iraq we had a chance, in Afghanistan, we don’t. Every person I have spoken to that has served in Afghanistan has said the same thing I am saying ... these people will never change ... they don’t want to change. They are happy and content in their tribal conflicts and will never accept anything less.

Democracy is such a foreign concept to them that they refuse to even conceive of such a thing. The Koran is their “constitution” and anything else is beyond their intellect.


8 posted on 02/10/2015 9:57:46 PM PST by doc1019 (Blue lives matter)
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To: Olog-hai

Obama didn’t pull out soon enough and now Iraq is not only pregnant with murderers, those animals are maturing and learning...


9 posted on 02/10/2015 10:01:59 PM PST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: doc1019

I had dinner with a camera man from Argentina News a couple years back.

He also said they happy living in some distant century and don’t want to come into modernity.

Lost cause according to him and he is a socialist...


10 posted on 02/10/2015 10:03:37 PM PST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: Second Amendment First; Nachum; blueyon; KitJ; T Minus Four; xzins; CMS; The Sailor; ab01; ...

Active Duty ping.


11 posted on 02/10/2015 10:05:47 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
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To: doc1019

I agree. Out, now.


12 posted on 02/10/2015 10:12:59 PM PST by laplata ( Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: Second Amendment First

Slowing the planned withdrawal? Is that what they meant by “Strategic Patience”?


13 posted on 02/10/2015 10:26:58 PM PST by DemforBush (A Repo Man is always intense!)
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To: doc1019

They used to say that about the Indians in the French and Indian war, too.


14 posted on 02/10/2015 11:22:56 PM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: doc1019

So Afghanistan is doomed to be a staging area for Islamic attacks on the West no matter what?

There are no “tribal conflicts” there. And nobody said a word about democracy, which ought to be alien to the USA too frankly since the left is so fond of it; we were founded as a republic. I’m not for changing our enemy, frankly, but defeating them; not that any of the Uniparty is for that; but running away like we just did in Yemen will make us look weaker still.


15 posted on 02/10/2015 11:25:11 PM PST by Olog-hai
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To: Vendome

So pulling out in any instance did . . . what, exactly? As I recall, most of the Iraqis actually didn’t want us to leave.

Obama won’t ever face up to the fact that tactics like the surge actually worked.


16 posted on 02/10/2015 11:27:11 PM PST by Olog-hai
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To: DemforBush

“If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.” ― Sun Tzu


17 posted on 02/10/2015 11:31:40 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
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To: doc1019

Under the most recent King they got along fairly well. They had a university, schools, rights for women, etc.
Problem was, though.... with the university came Marxism. And with Marxists came “community organizing” and division and eventually a coup.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=afghanistan+under+zahir+shah&qpvt=+afghanistan+under+zahir+shah&form=VDRE&first=1#view=detail&mid=5F8F1C6CFB2C9DEFAA9E5F8F1C6CFB2C9DEFAA9E


18 posted on 02/10/2015 11:31:54 PM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: piasa

Before in 1960-1972 compared to after the Soviets and the Taliban

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTHy4btmL38


19 posted on 02/10/2015 11:43:12 PM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Olog-hai

He’s had his own surge of sorts.

A virtual baby boom.


20 posted on 02/10/2015 11:59:47 PM PST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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