Afghanistan Withdrawal

From Politico we have this, which just popped up:

NEWS FLASH: This just in from the office of White House press secretary Jay Carney: "At 8pm EDT on Wednesday, June 22nd, the President will address the nation from the White House to lay out his plan for implementing his strategy -- first unveiled in December 2009 -- to draw down American troops from Afghanistan."

POLITICO's Glenn Thrush and Josh Gerstein report that Obama will announce plans to withdraw 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, with 5,000 returning by the end of this year.

What this means to me is that the President is not going to conduct an accelerated withdrawal from Afghanistan, thus giving more time for reforms to take hold in that land-locked nation.

Regards  —  Cliff