President Obama announced on May 27th a scaled
back plan to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2016. The proposal will reduce the present 32,000
troops to 9,800 by the end of 2014 with final withdrawal by the end of 2016. The proposal is subject to the approval of a
bilateral security agreement (BSA). The
current Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has refused to sign a BSA, but his probable
successors indicate they will sign such an agreement.
The President’s announcement represents a sharp pull back
from the previous plan to retain 10 to 15 thousand U.S. personnel in
Afghanistan for ten years.