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Congressional Democrats are leading the
criticism of President Barack Obama's plan for withdrawing U.S.
troops from Afghanistan, arguing that his timeline for bringing
33,000 home by next summer isn't fast enough.

      An initial drawdown of 10,000 troops is expected to take place
in two phases, with 5,000 troops coming home this summer and 5,000
more by the end of the year. An additional 20,000-plus are to
follow by September 2012.

      That still would leave about 70,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan,
with many to come home gradually over two more years.

      "It has been the hope of many in Congress and across the
country that the full drawdown of U.S. forces would happen sooner
than the president laid out - and we will continue to press for a
better outcome," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi,
D-Calif., leading a chorus of disgruntled Democrats who took the
president to task, albeit politely.

      From across the aisle, the Republican response to Obama's
timeline for withdrawing tens of thousands of troops was measured.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, warned Obama not to sacrifice
the gains the U.S. has made in Afghanistan, while Arizona Sen. John
McCain said the drawdown was too rash.

      "This is not the `modest' withdrawal that I and others had
hoped for and advocated," McCain said in a statement following
Obama's prime-time address to the nation Wednesday night.

      "It seems the president is trying to find a political solution
with a military component to it, when it needs to be the other way
around," Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., the chairman of the House
Intelligence Committee, said.

      John Kerry, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee objected to that argument. "Everybody has
consistently said there is ... no military solution," he said.
"If there is no military solution, then you better go hunt for the
political one."

      Kerry, D-Mass., added that Obama's plan will allow the Afghans
to "begin to make the accommodations and the choices about their
own future."

      Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday backed up that
argument, promising that his nation's youth will stand up and
defend Afghanistan as the U.S. begins to pull its troops out.
Karzai thanked international troops for their support and said
"the people of Afghanistan will be protecting their homeland."

      Potential GOP presidential candidates were quick to weigh in
with criticism.

      Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney accused Obama of proposing
an "arbitrary timetable" and said the decision on withdrawing
troops "should not be based on politics or economics." Former
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman said the approach in Afghanistan should be
focused on counterterrorism, "which requires significantly fewer
boots on the ground than the president discussed tonight."

      As he works to sell his withdrawal plan, Obama on Thursday was
to visit Fort Drum, the upstate New York Army post that is home to
the 10th Mountain Division, one of the most frequently deployed
divisions to Afghanistan.

      Obama ordered more than 30,000 "surge" forces to Afghanistan
in 2009 in order to rescue a flailing effort, and promised to start
bringing them home in July of this year. In his speech Wednesday
night, he declared: "The tide of war is receding."

      Even after the surge forces leave Afghanistan, 70,000 U.S.
troops will remain in an unstable country, fighting in a war bound
to see more Americans killed. Obama said they will leave at a
steady pace, but the U.S. combat mission is not expected to end
until December 2014 - and even then, a sizable and enduring
contingent may remain in a different role.

      Obama's announcement from the White House came in a perilous
political environment. Most Americans oppose the war in Afghanistan
and are far more concerned about the teetering economic recovery at
home.

      At least 1,500 members of the U.S. military have died and 12,000
have been wounded since the war began in late 2001. The financial
cost of the war has passed $440 billion and is on the rise, jumping
to $120 billion a year. Those costs have risen in importance as a
divided U.S. government struggles to contain its soaring debt.

      Conceding the economic strain of waging war at a time of rising
debt and fiscal constraint, Obama said it was time for America "to
focus on nation-building here at home." The president's chances
for re-election rest largely on his ability to show faster job
growth in a time of deepening economic pessimism.

      The withdrawal is supported by the bold bottom-line claims of
his security team: Afghanistan, training ground for the Sept. 11,
2001, attacks on the U.S., no longer is a launching pad for
exporting terrorism and hasn't been for years. But that also could
fuel arguments for even greater withdrawals by voters wondering
what the point of the war is after all these years, especially
since the face of the enemy - al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden - was
killed by American forces last month during a U.S. raid in
Pakistan.

      Yet the White House insists the U.S. must maintain a strong
fighting force in Afghanistan for now to keep the country from
slipping back into a terrorist haven.

      Obama said Wednesday that materials recovered during the raid to
get bin Laden showed that al-Qaida was under deep strain. He said
bin Laden himself expressed concern that his organization would be
unable to effectively replace senior leaders that had been killed.

      The president declared, "We have put al-Qaida on a path to
defeat, and we will not relent until the job is done."

      Even after the troops come home, the war will remain expanded on
Obama's watch. He approved 21,000 additional troops for Afghanistan
shortly after taking office in 2009, bringing the total number to
68,000. That means he is likely to face re-election with more
troops in Afghanistan than when he took office, although he has
also dramatically reduced the U.S. military presence in Iraq.

      The president spoke for just under 15 minutes from the East
Room. It was a strategic moment for him to try to explain a turning
point in the war effort without elevating it to a major Oval Office
address - more of a stay-the-course case of progress and
resilience.

      "Of course, huge challenges remain," the president said.
"This is the beginning - but not the end - of our effort to wind
down this war."

      Military commanders favored a plan that would allow them to keep
as many of the 30,000 surge troops in Afghanistan for as long as
possible, ideally through the end of 2012. That timeline would have
given them greater troop strength through two crucial fighting
seasons.

      Associated Press writers Robert Burns, Lolita C. Baldor, Matthew
Lee and Donna Cassata in Washington and Solomon Moore in Kabul,
Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

Gallery

Politics and Government News

Congressional Democrats are leading the
criticism of President Barack Obama's plan for withdrawing U.S.
troops from Afghanistan, arguing that his timeline for bringing
33,000 home by next summer isn't fast enough.


Obama's Afghanistan plan criticized by Dems, GOP

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