Republican senators criticize Afghan pullout plan
Two key Republican senators visiting Afghanistan said Sunday that many Afghans may see President Obama’s plans to pull 33,000 American troops out of the country as a prelude to a full-fledged U.S. military withdrawal, a perception the lawmakers argued could undercut the decade-long effort to combat terrorists in the region.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), speaking in the capital, Kabul, described Obama’s decision to reduce American forces from their current level of just more than 100,000 troops as “an unnecessary risk” that would deprive the U.S. military of the “troops that are needed for a second fighting season.”