Obama holds to Afghanistan withdrawal deadline

[unhappycamper]

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/08/obama-holds-afghanistan-withdrawal-deadline

Obama holds to Afghanistan withdrawal deadline
By Mark Landler
The New York Times
© August 20, 2014

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama may have ordered U.S. warplanes back to Iraq, but he has not changed his mind about his other big military withdrawal. Obama told advisers this week that delaying the pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan would make no difference there as long as the country does not overcome its political rifts.

The president, a senior administration official said, was rejecting a growing chorus of arguments in Washington that the chaos in Iraq should prompt him to reconsider his timetable for withdrawing the last soldiers from Afghanistan by the end of 2016.

“People have said, ‘Doesn’t this show that you should never take the troops out of Afghanistan?’” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “He said, ‘No, it actually points to the imperative of having political accommodation. There’s a limit to what we can achieve absent a political process.’”

Obama’s comments were particularly pointed, given that Afghanistan’s leadership has been paralyzed for months after a disputed election to replace President Hamid Karzai. The stalemate between the two candidates, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and Abdullah Abdullah, led to fears this week that a cabal of Afghan government ministers with ties to the security forces would seize power and install an interim government.

[MisterP]

1. (intensifying in Afghanistan): "He got us out of Iraq!" (intensifying in Iraq): "He got us out of

Afghanistan!"