the pace and slope will depend on conditions on is ground. it depends how much the taliban has been degraded and whether the afghan troop training is on schedule. faster than expected troop training in iraq allowed faster u.s. withdrawal through, but it s not going as well in afghanistan according to illinois senator mark kirk. the afghans are three years behind the iraqis. i think that the petraeus recommendation will be to start the major withdrawal in 2014, not 2012. but the current plans are for all foreign troops to be out by the end of 2014. general david petraeus the u.s. commander in afghanistan is one of several key officials who are changing roles. moving to head the c.i.a. why leon panetta who favors fewer troops on the ground and more focus on drone strikes becomes secretary of defense. on this day, mr. obama held what may be the last monthly meeting of the afghanistan and pakistan security team before the decision is announced.
drawdown. the pace and slope will depend on conditions on is ground. it depends how much the taliban has been degraded and whether the afghan troop training is on schedule. faster than expected troop training in iraq allowed faster u.s. withdrawal through, but it s not going as well in afghanistan according to illinois senator mark kirk. the afghans are three years behind the iraqis. i think that the petraeus recommendation will be to start the major withdrawal in 2014, not 2012. but the current plans are for all foreign troops to be out by the end of 2014. general david petraeus the u.s. commander in afghanistan is one of several key officials who are changing roles. moving to head the c.i.a. why leon panetta who favors fewer troops on the ground and more focus on drone strikes becomes secretary of defense. on this day, mr. obama held what may be the last monthly meeting of the afghanistan and pakistan security team before the decision is announced.
arabia yesterday about helping them upgrade their defense system to deal with the iranian threat, of great concern to these key allies, the u.a.e. and also saudi arabia. just yesterday, we had a little bit of political drama. secretary gates was in afghanistan reviewing troop training of afghan forces when he was asked about mahmoud ahmadinejad, the iranian president coming to afghanistan the day that gates was leaving, gates said, you know, that he was very diplomatic in saying that he thinks that afghanistan should have good relations with its neighbors but that essentially that iran should be straight with the afghans about what they re doing. the u.s. has accused the iranians of metaling in afghanistan similar to what they did in iraq. ahmadinejad traded a jab back and said the u.s. is not being straight with afghanistan, that the u.s. has created terrorists and now claims to be fighting terrorists so typical stuff from mahmoud ahmadinejad. so the back and forth continues. but here