Obama Afghan withdrawal plan pleases enemy
President Obama's plan to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan in July 2011 has emboldened terrorists and increased distrust of U.S. intentions in the region, Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Thursday.This is the price we have to pay for Obama's appeal to his anti war kook base. It will only become more difficult as the deadline approaches. One of the first things the Afghans told the Marines when they began clearing Marja is "don't leave." Obama is not listening to them."The administration's withdrawal date was music to the ears of the militants and terrorists," Qureshi said in an exclusive interview with The Washington Examiner. "This sends the wrong signal, and you will have chaos and confusion in Afghanistan if this comes to fruition."
Meeting with a reporter in his Islamabad office, Qureshi said, "If we walk away sort of leaving things half-baked, that could be the worst thing you could have done to regional stability."
The minister's comments marked some of the strongest criticism yet from regional allies of the Obama administration's goal to begin withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in July 2011. That intention was spelled out by the president during a December speech in which he announced a surge of American troops into Afghanistan, from about 30,000 to more than 100,000.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates later suggested that once the withdrawal begins in July 2011, completing it could take "two or three years," while conceding that "there are no deadlines in terms of when our troops will all be out."
...An Afghan official with knowledge of current military operations in Afghanistan told The Examiner that the announcement of a planned withdrawal date made the people of his country apprehensive about openly supporting the U.S.-led NATO mission.
"They're afraid to be deserted," the Afghan official said. "The Taliban watches the news, the news spreads, and they use it as a weapon against the people. It works against what we're trying to accomplish, no matter what anyone says publicly."
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