Report: Military Weighing Removal Of 5,000+ Troops From Afghanistan

Military officers have drafted a preliminary proposal to remove 5,000 troops from Afghanistan in July and as many as 5,000 more by the end of the year, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The plan comes as President Obama’s July deadline to begin a measured withdrawal approaches. General David Petraeus, who oversees U.S. forces on the ground, is scheduled to give his recommendations prior to that, but has reportedly not seen the preliminary proposal.

Pentagon spokesperson Col. David Lapan told reporters Tuesday that the General has not yet indicated to anybody within the Defense Department what course of action he will recommend, nor will officers below him shape the final decision. He noted that any drawdown numbers reported right now are essentially “speculation.”

The July deadline was announced when President Obama committed 30,000 additional troops in late 2009. Since then, a growing number of lawmakers have grown frustrated with the length of the U.S. presence in the country. On Monday, a bipartisan collection of House members sent a letter urging President Obama to move the focus to Special Operations and severely minimize the current force.