NATO Commander in Afghanistan Wants Slow-Down on Draw-Down

GEN Allen might be the next AfPak CG to get his walking papers, after publicly advocating for the troops to stay.

Gen John Allen is opposing Barack Obama's strategy of steadily pulling out troops over the next three years and argues a premature decline will jeopardise security gains made in the past year.
Mr Obama announced in June that United States troop levels would fall from their current 97,000 to around 68,000 by September 2012 and continue to leave Afghanistan afterwards at a "steady pace".
Gen Allen instead wants troop levels to plateau at 68,000 throughout 2013, before withdrawal resumes in 2014, sources in Kabul said.
The American president has yet to respond to the general's suggestion, but it has been not been welcomed by administration officials according to one senior officer familiar with the discussions.

If he get whacked, he's going to join GEN McNeill, GEN McChrystal, and MG Fuller as guys booted from Afghanistan, not for incompetence, but apparently for temerity.

By: Brant