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BREAKING

U.S. Troops To Withdraw From Afghanistan ASAP

More than half will be home within a year

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by David Mark

Editor-in-Chief t

Image: AP.

More than half the U.S. troops left in Afghanistan will pull out within a year. That's likely to be President Barack Obama's most memorable statement from Tuesday night's State of the Union speech.

Reuters reports that the president will announce that 34,000 troops will return from Afghanistan by early 2014, out of about 64,000 currently stationed there. Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai last month agreed to speed the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan forces.

Washington's NATO allies have been steadily reducing their troop numbers despite doubts about the ability of Afghan forces to shoulder full responsibility for security. Afghanistan was once labeled the "good war" because the 9/11 plot was masterminded there. But criticism has grown across the political spectrum in recent years about U.S. troops' lingering presence.

But not everyone's likely to be so pleased with the Afghanistan drawdown. In his latest broadside against President Obama, former Vice President Dick Cheney said on CBS "This Morning":

"I think the president came to power with a worldview that's fundamentally different than mine. The sense that he wanted to reduce U.S. influence in the world. He wanted to take us down a peg."

Via Reuters and CBS "This Morning"

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Comments (view in Forum)

  • PNWest
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    If you are contemplating a name change why not go for a winner this time? May I suggest "Hillary2016"? Has a nice ring to it.

  • View all 15 replies >

  • u
    vws
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    Just in time to be laid-off by our do nothing government - maybe they can get a job in Obama's new civilian police force - he will need them if he is going after our guns!
  • Fitz
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    @PoliticalSpice for all of the partisan bickering I see on here why can't they see there is very little differences between the two major parties?

  • View all 7 replies >

  • DogLady_1
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    Time to get out and bring our troops back home... there are any number of reasons why we should do this... bin laden is dead, we cannot fight another country's war for them, we can't afford it, too many military suicides already, we can't afford it, we're broke and can't afford it, we are not the world police and cannot afford to be the world police, death toll for Americans is higher than it should have ever been and still climbing, it does nothing toward improving our own national security... and we cannot afford it...
  • DogLady_1
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    @GenPatton43 - History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap. --Ronald Reagan
  • PNWest
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    Bring our boys home now. Bin Laden is dead. Maybe Obama could do something flashy to celebrate like put on a flight suit and helicopter onto a battleship and give a speech in front of a Mission Accomplished banner. Nah - what kind of an idiot would do something so narcissistic?
  • DrFunkenstein
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    About time, this is something everyone should be happy about no matter what you think of the president but who wants to bet Fox News will fashion this as a political move by Obama to trick Americans into liking him so he can ban all guns and force everyone to gay marry a illegal immigrant in the churches that he has rebranded as idiot houses after he bans all religions.
  • jessejaymes
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    You left out while taking the seniors pitiful cost of living raises and not saying a word about Banks paying ZERO income taxes. You can defend this guy because he's "your side" all you want but if it's not about gays, guns or illegals Obama simply is no different than Bush. He's a terrible president.
  • DrFunkenstein
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    @jessejaymes No different from Bush? How many wars has Obama started for his friends to make money? How many massive tax cuts has he given to his friends? How many handouts has he given to his friend's corporations? When Obama does those things then you can compare him to the worst president ever, until then he's been doing a decent job trying to recover from the worst president ever.
  • jessejaymes
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    @DrFunkenstein BS. obama left Iraq under Bush's timetable and we're still pouring money into Iraq. He's bragging about leaving Afghanistan when in fact he's leaving 30,000 troops and trillions of tax payer dollars there. What is the point in that? He's had 4 years to wind that one down. What is it going to take? Halliburton not made enough profit in Afghanistan yet? I am sick to death of both liberals and conservatives defending "their side" when the FACTS clearly state that Obama is no different than Bush. He's bought and paid for by Wall Street.
  • DrFunkenstein
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    @jessejaymes I am not on any side other than Humanity and The United States. Obama has failed in prosecuting the criminals in Wall Street but there is NO PERSON ANYWHERE that could have done better in recovering from the obliterated country that Bush handed him. According to the CBO, the National Debt was supposed to have been paid off by 2010 but because of Bush's tax cuts for the rich, handouts to corporations, two wars and Medicare Part D(which he did not pay for) the country saw a net loss of 16 trillion dollars under Bush. Obama inherited debt which is about 1 trillion in INTEREST a year, two wars and a economy in complete shambles. Point at the National Debt, it's 16 trillion. NO ONE could have done better.
  • jessejaymes
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    @DrFunkenstein Absolute nonsense. Bush was the worst president in USA history. Obama is working on 2nd. All that "stimulus" money went to rich people/wall street./banks and did not create job one. In the most simple of terms the fiasco with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was that the banks got bailed for bad loans and then Obama turned right around and gave the homes back to the banks. He could have easily demanded that those loans be rewritten to affordable loans and people kept their homes. he didn't do that. He allowed the banks to recoup their losses and take the homes both. We could have been out from under Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae several years ago. He gave money like water to GM and they have had record profits for two years in a row now and YET we can't recoup the money loaned to them?

    Obama raised about the Patriot Act and promised to repeal it. He didn't. He in fact has allowed it to be expanded. He has not vetoed a single bill based on pork barrel spending. Obamacare is a bastardized piece of crap that can't possibly work to anyone's favor other than the insurance companies and I'm someone who supports socialized medicine.

    Nothing Obama has done has remotely resembled success other than his never ending crusade for "gay rights". If I were President I would hope that my legacy amounted to more than spending every dime of political capital I had for less than 10% of the population. Anyone with a lick of business sense and political acumen knows there is a war going on by the ultra rich against the middle class and it is the design of the ultra rich to destroy the middle class. And yet Obama has not even lifted finger one to help the middle class. In fact he extended the Bush tax cuts for the rich instead of repealing them when he first could have. His campaign spent a billion dollars just as Romney's did and his contributors are the same as Romney's.

    It would be nice if just once you liberals would not do exactly the same as the far right does. Point the finger at the other party and refuse to hold your own accountable. Obama is not a good president. He's owned lock stock and barrel by Wall Street and all his gays, guns and illegal CRAP is centered around getting votes of his party. He has in fact, done nothing, for the middle class. He's a GW Bush all over again. A finger puppet doing the bidding of his handlers.
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
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    It is a shame how obama just blatantly surrendered this war. I hope the next generation of Americans will be safe with this unholy regime in the White House. Americans must make a better selection for president in 2016. That is, if God allows us to even exist that long, we have thumbed our nose up at him for far too long.
  • PNWest
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    You should be GLAD, GLAD, GLAD that these troops are coming home. Bin Laden is dead - that's why the troops went there in the first place. Thanks to Obama bringing these troops home there is that much less chance for either of your precious boys to die in a senseless war. That should make you very, very happy.
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
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    @thatgirl - North Korea, Iran, Syria, Mali, Libya, on and on and on. Your president, because you are the one that voted for him, is not doing anything, anything at all, to address the security issues presented by these nations. Go ahead, duck your head into the sand and just believe everything will be alright just because it will. 9/11 says otherwise. We have enemies. There are people that hate our success and hate our freedoms and are committed to ending both. We need a president with a backbone ready to fight for American ideals. obama is not such a man.
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
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    @PNWest - No, my precious boys will just die in a terrorist attack instead, since obama is opposed to closing the open border with Mexico, plus he wants to reward lawbreakers with citizenship. Great. NOT!

  • View all 37 replies >

  • Knightkore
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    They don't play normal war....it's time we start learning that....the drones would go a long way if used properly and with....call it the Skynet Program....not one terrorist would try anything again....
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    AceLuby
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    Lol, because we didn't learn from Korea, Vietnam, and a host of other countries around the world where this exact same thing happened. When you INVADE another country the people living there will fight to the death for their homeland and will never surrender, just as we would if another country invaded us.
  • jessejaymes
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    @Knightmare There is no such thing as a "normal war" today. We have more than 40,000 tanks of which more than 30,000 are sitting around in mothballs. War is war and we don't fight wars. We make money for the military industrial complex. Those "ragtags" fight war. We war for the profit of corporations.

  • View all 15 replies >

  • DerivePI
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    Great. No reason to avoid cutting the federal budget then. I expect to hear no arguments about sequestration (sarcasm).

    A whopping $109 Billion federal budget cut will finally be implemented. We are on the road to fiscal maturity. Just think, with strong steps like this we will be on our way to a balanced budget in ... never.

    BTW,$109B represents almost 11% of our annual deficit and only 3% of our annual federal spending. So you're losing your house, and car because the bank sees that you spend 45% more than you take in every year when you have an epiphany. "Don't foreclose on me bank! If I cancel my cable TV service, I'll only be overspending each year by 42%, yeah!"
  • u
    AceLuby
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    It's about time. Now to close the TSA and homeland security. Why we need taxpayers to fund private security and TWO intelligence agencies is mind boggling.
  • Mercury34
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    Good. It's time for our troops to leave. Just let Afghanistan pick up the pieces and try to rebuild. We don't need to police the world.
  • u
    lochlomond
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    Afghanistan is referred to historically as "the graveyard of empires." It is impossible to fwin a politically correct war. As General Sherman famously said, War is hell." His burning and pillaging on his march through the South was a reflection of his belief that it is the people who provide the necessities (other than weapons) to sustain the military. Since the policy in Afghanistan is to fight a limited war, avoiding civilians as much as possible, we are fghting a losing battle at great cost in troops and treasure. It is becoming a Vietnam Part II, a war of attrition with seemingly endless numbers of the enemy.
  • jessejaymes
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    This is absolute BS!!! We have been in Afghanistan nearly 12 years now. Longer than the Russians were. Obama wants a pat on the back for bringing home troops when he's leaving more than 30,000? Give me a break. Do you know how much money 30,000 troops cost to be deployed? Do you have any idea how much money Halliburton continues to make for simply feeding those troops? At 6.00 for a six pack of Shasta cola? This is more of the same as GW Bush. I read last week that the amount of corruption money leaving Afghanistan every year is more than their national budget. Guess who is paying for all that money to go to "Swiss banks". US.

    Why are we leaving 30,000 troops to "train" the Aghans? What does it say that in 12 years we can't train those people to defend themselves against people with RPG's and Stingers? Who is the more stupid?

    I've lost all respect for Obama. He's no different than GW bush. Pandering to Wall Street and the Banks, allowing America to be raped and looted by big business and not one god damn reason to be leaving 30,000 of our kids in Afghanistan. The man is yet another failure as an American President.
  • u
    KyleMFb
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    Look we do what America does best we go in to a bad situation and make it worse we've already accomplished what we set out to do we killed bin laden now that that's done we need to pick the next country to topple over and rape and steal their resources like we did with Iraq and afghan
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