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Mon 12 Dec 2009US Afghan withdrawal 'deadline' not set in stone
US president Barack Obama’s July 2011 date for beginning withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan is not a “drop-dead deadline” but a message to Kabul about the urgency of fielding an army to defend the country, senior US officials said yesterday.
“He was balancing a demonstration of resolve with also communicating a sense of urgency to the Afghan government that they must step up to the plate in terms of recruiting their soldiers, training their soldiers and getting their soldiers into the field,” US defence secretary Robert Gates told CBS’s Face the Nation programme.
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