Afghanistan: Withdrawal next year is now "transition" into 2015, and beyond

A top NATO official said Wednesday that a complete handover of security to Afghan forces by 2014 was "realistic, but not guaranteed," and the transition could last into 2015 "or beyond."

Mark Sedwill, NATO's senior civilian representative in Afghanistan, cautioned there could be "levels of violence that are, by Western standards, pretty eye-watering" even after 2014. . . .

His remarks appeared aimed at conditioning weary American and European publics to the likelihood that the transition won't be clear-cut or inexpensive. They threw the end date for U.S. and other foreign combat forces further into question.

Aides to President Barack Obama now are playing down the deadline of July 2011, when the first U.S. troops are supposed to withdraw - - at least according to Obama's speech last December.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/18/1931338/transition-could-last-into-2015.html

To be clear - - they're going to say that Obama didn't lie when he promised a post surge withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2011, because withdrawal isn't delayed. Under the new terminology, it's transition which is delayed.

Unfortunately, the anti war left and the mainstream media will let Obama get away with it. As it turns out, they were only against Bush's wars, not all unnecessary wars of choice.