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Obama administration weighs Afghan request to slow withdrawal of US troops
[Ynet] President Barack Obama
Ready to Rule from Day One...
is considering a request from Afghanistan's Caped President Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
 to slow the pace of the withdrawal of US troops in Afghanistan, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.
"In fact, if the pace of withdrawal could look suspiciously like a surge, we'd be completely amenable," President Ghani is rumoured to have added. This man is clearly no Hamid Karzai.
"President Ghani has requested some flexibility in the troop drawdown timeline and base closure sequencing over the next two years, and we are actively considering that request," the official said, speaking on background.

Ghani will travel to Washington next month to meet with Obama. Last month, the Afghan president spoke publicly about the US plan to halve the number of troops in Afghanistan in 2015 and cut them further in 2016. He made clear he would prefer a longer timeline and said: "deadlines should not be dogmas."
Posted by: trailing wife 2015-02-12
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=410558