Obama: Afghanistan troop drawdown won't be steep

[unhappycamper]

Obama: Afghanistan troop drawdown won't be steep
Dec 10, 7:36 AM EST

OSLO (AP) -- President Barack Obama said Thursday that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, set to start in 19 months, will be gradual, and U.S. aid to that nation will last for years.

"We're not going to see some sharp cliff, some precipitous drawdown," Obama told reporters in Oslo, where he traveled to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.

The president said he is sticking to his plan to start the drawdown in July 2011, but he signaled that the United States will help Afghanistan train its security forces and develop its economy for some time.

"Several years after U.S. combat troops have been drastically reduced in the region," he said, "the Afghanistan government is still going to need support for those security forces. We are still going to have an interest in partnering with Afghans and Pakistanis and others in dealing with the remnants of terrorist activities there."

Some critics have questioned Obama's timetable because the United States is about to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Many liberals in Congress and elsewhere oppose the buildup in the first place.


Rest of article at: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_OBAMA_AFGHANISTAN?SITE=DCSAS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[elocs]

1. The message is: I intend to start withdrawing troops in the future,

but for now I will send thousands of more troops, more than the thousands I originally promised to send earlier in the year, but I am not promising that I will not send thousands of more troops before I start to withdraw them. Trust me, these are not just words.

[frylock]

2. yeah, no shoot?