Word: pullouts
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...seem paradoxical but Afghanistan and its neighbors can't afford a pullout or substantial reduction of combat missions by NATO allies. Western allies ought to refocus and realign their strategy by equipping Pakistan's armed forces meaningfully in their fight against rogue elements. Without concrete and sufficient support from Pakistan's forces, NATO and Western allies can't make headway in solving the Afghan puzzle. Imran Maqbool, Karachi, Pakistan...
...pull troops out by 2013, though in a pre-election debate with Merkel he hedged his bets, saying that he merely wanted to "create the conditions" by 2013 so a "withdrawal could begin." Unsurprisingly, Merkel herself has suggested it might be time to draw up a timetable for a pullout. (See pictures of British soldiers in Afghanistan...
...quits on Karzai, the results could be disastrous. "It will be dog-eat-dog here," says Ashraf Ghani, a U.S.-educated presidential contender. In the vacuum created by a U.S. pullout, he argues, the Taliban would retake Kabul while millions of Afghans who embraced Western promises of girls' education, democracy and a place for Afghanistan in the 21st century would flee the country...
...Berlusconi's, Northern League chief Umberto Bossi, was declaring that "the mission in Afghanistan has reached its end" and calling for Italy's troops to be brought home by Christmas. Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, a die-hard Berlusconi loyalist, said Friday there are no immediate plans for a pullout but expressed serious doubts about the situation in Afghanistan. "Much has to change," Frattini told the daily Corriere della Sera. "There needs to be ... more attention on the people who suffer and on reconstruction. The general vision of the mission must be changed." Frattini wants more emphasis on the approach Italian...
...Italy and elsewhere, that leaves space for populists like Bossi to harvest new supporters by leading the charge for a fast pullout. These days Berlusconi is more vulnerable to recalcitrant allies in the face of near daily blowback from a private-life scandal that began in April when his estranged wife accused him of "frequenting underage females...