Word: troop
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...Obama is a well-liked person. You feel it when he talks because he's genuine and passionate about what he says - he's not acting," says supermarket attendant Bassam Obeid in central Baghdad. "But this visit is just for election publicity, and 16 months [for U.S. combat troop withdrawal] is an exaggeration." Leila Mohammed, a housewife in Baghdad's Karrada district, also shrugged at the significance of the visit, the first Obama will make to the war zone since clinching the Democratic nomination. "There is no need for Obama to meet [Iraq's Prime Minister] Nouri al-Maliki until...
...Obeid and Mohammed aren't the only ones who feel that way. Maliki also appears uncertain of just how warmly to welcome the Democratic candidate at this stage in the U.S. presidential campaign. Despite the Iraqi leader's recent call for a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal - not a far cry from Obama's pledge to withdraw all combat troops within 16 months of being elected - it remains unclear whether Obama and Maliki will even meet this week...
...candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes." But the comments came a day after Maliki and the White House agreed more vaguely to negotiate a "time horizon" for a continued U.S. troop presence in the country, and Sunday saw the Prime Minister quickly back-pedaling. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said that Maliki had been misquoted...
Getting Out of the Way So what exactly should we do about Afghanistan now? First, the West should not increase troop numbers. In time, NATO allies, such as Germany and Holland, will probably want to draw down their numbers, and they should be allowed to do so. We face pressing challenges elsewhere. If we are worried about terrorism, Pakistan is more important than Afghanistan; if we are worried about regional stability, then Egypt, Iran or even Lebanon is more important; if we are worried about poverty, Africa is more important. A troop increase is likely to inflame Afghan nationalism because...
...nation. It would involve a very long-term policy of containment and management, and it may never lead to a clear victory or exit. But unlike abandoning Afghanistan entirely, as we did in 1990, it would not leave a vacuum filled by dangerous neighbors. And unlike a policy of troop increases, this strategy would be less costly, more popular with voters, more sustainable in the long term, less of a distraction from other global priorities and less likely to alienate Afghan nationalists and undermine the Afghan state...