Obama and Cameron set to end troops' lead combat role in Afghanistan

[malaise]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/13/cameron-obama-afghanistan-troop-withdrawl
<snip>
David Cameron and Barack Obama will on Wednesday agree tentative plans for British and US troops to end their "lead combat role" in Afghanistan by the middle of next year.

Their meeting comes amid growing anger in Afghanistan over the killing of 16 civilians on Sunday by a US soldier, and follows the funerals in Britain of six soldiers killed by a bomb earlier this month, taking the death toll of UK troops over the 400 mark.

Amid fears among Nato commanders in Afghanistan that the troop "draw down" may be moving too rapidly, the two leaders will discuss plans for British and US troops to move from "lead combat" to a support and training role by the middle of 2013. This could involve what is being described as a "support combat role", though all Nato troops except those involved in training Afghan forces are due to be withdrawn by the end of 2014.

They will say the relationship is essential to world stability and British and US troops have lived up to Winston Churchill's maxim that they should "keep up" the co-operation of the second world war.
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About fugging time!

[craigmatic]

1. The longer we stay the more likely things will go wrong and get worse.

[malaise]

2. Not sure how much worse it can get after the slaughter of

those innocents?