pullout

(Newser) - Gen. Stanley McChrystal has ordered a major shift in US troop deployment in Afghanistan, telling his commanders to pull out of the sparsely populated, Taliban-controlled areas and focus instead on protecting population centers, the Washington Post reports. US officials say they’ve realized that they’re not going to wrest...

(Newser) - Administration officials are concerned that pressure from the left could drive the Afghanistan war effort off the rails early, Politico reports. Rising casualties, along with doubts about strategy and the recent election, are raising fears the White House could be denied a chance to show concrete progress in the country....

(Newser) - On the heels of President Bush's announcement of limited drawbacks in Iraq, Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed confidence yesterday that a bigger pullout would be possible. Gates said yesterday that he hopes for more cuts than Bush and Gen. David Petraeus were willing to commit to, bringing troop levels down...

(Newser) - In a significant break from his previous support for the White House's Iraq policy, John Warner said today wants to see some US troops home by Christmas. The influential ex-chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee has opposed Democratic attempts to force withdrawal, CNN reports, but now says a partial...