Text Fwd: Armitage-Berger CFR report urges big Afghan drawdown if no progress 아미타지-버거 보고서, 아프가니스탄에서 미군의 철수 간곡 요청

Just Foreign Policy News
November 12, 2010

The Canadian Press
U.S. panel urges drawdown in Afghanistan
Lee-Anne Goodman,
November 12, 2010

Washington - A respected panel of U.S. military and foreign policy experts says President Barack Obama should dramatically cut the number of American troops in Afghanistan in the absence of any concrete signs of progress in the bloody nine-year-old conflict.

The 25-member task force of the Council on Foreign Relations, led by two key officials in the George W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, is urging the White House to make some tough decisions on the war, which is costing billions of dollars a month at a time when the United States is dealing with massive deficits and a painfully slow economic recovery.

"The cloudy picture and high costs raise the question of whether the United States should now downsize its ambitions and reduce its military presence in Afghanistan," the council's task force said in a 98-page report. "We are mindful of the real threat we face. But we are also aware of the costs of the present strategy. We cannot accept these costs unless the strategy begins to show signs of progress."

The Obama administration's hotly anticipated review of its Afghanistan strategy is set for next month. Top U.S. military officials are said to be painting a positive picture of the conflict for Obama, while independent analysts are far more pessimistic about the prospects for success.

"If the December 2010 review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan concludes that the present strategy is not working, the task force recommends that a shift to a more limited mission at a substantially reduced level of military force would be warranted," the Council on Foreign Relations report said.

[...]

In recent days, the Obama administration has been signalling it's reconsidered its previously announced intention to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan next July, instead emphasizing the goal of handing over security to Afghans by 2014. The changing U.S. timeline is expected to be made official at a NATO conference in Lisbon next week.

But the task force, led by former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage and former national security adviser Samuel Berger, implicitly argued against extending the withdrawal deadline. "If progress is being made, the United State s should be able to draw down its forces starting in July 2011, based on conditions on the ground," it said. "However, if U.S. efforts are not working, a more significant drawdown to a narrower mission that emphasizes counter-terror objectives with fewer US forces will be warranted."

READ MORE