President Obama is set to make a primetime speech tonight announcing his plan to bring home less than 30 percent of the troops from Afghanistan over the next two years. According to the Times, Obama plans to pullout 10,000 American troops from Afghanistan this year, and another 20,000 troops, the remainder of the 2009 “surge,” by the end of next summer. And the Gray Lady is calling the decision a victory for...Joe Biden.
While many military commanders, including Gen. David H. Petraeus, had recommended limiting initial withdrawals, Biden has long argued for ending American troops stationing in Afghanistan. The withdrawal will also fulfill a pledge Obama made in December 2009, when he coupled the deployment of 30,000 additional troops with a promise to begin winding down America’s engagement in the country. Altogether, these withdrawals represent approximately almost one third of current American troop strength in the country. The others will be sticking around to fight a nebulous enemy in the graveyard of empires. Have fun, guys!
Obama has been under increased pressure from the American public to bring troops home—a Pew Research Center poll yesterday found that a record-number of Americans (56 percent polled) don't support keeping troops abroad there. Sources told the Times that while Petraeus is against the plan, both Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who is retiring, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have "reluctantly" accepted it.
As Politico notes, Obama will be negotiating with many disparate groups in making his 8 p.m. announcement of the drastic, immediate withdrawals tonight. But if he handles them anything like he handled the baby below, he'll have no problem:
