The phony withdrawal from Afghanistan

In promising a U.S. military pullout from Afghanistan will begin in July, President Barack Obama is permitting his commanders to decide critical details, including the number of troops to depart first and whether any of those will be combat forces, administration and military officials said Sunday.

. . . Other administration and military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Obama has left it to Petraeus to determine exactly how big a reduction to make in July and whether they include combat forces, so long as the drawdown reaches 10,000 by year's end. Those officials said it was agreed that no reductions in July was not an option.

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/obama-gave-commanders-leeway-988645.html

In other words, Obama will withdraw 10,000 soldiers in staff support positions, replace them with contractors and mercenaries, still have the same number of troops engaged in combat, and call it a 10% force reduction.

Of course, the "anti war" "progressives" will wait for a Republican president to be elected before protesting this cynical chicanery.