Quote: | Smoke dissipates above a mountain after an airplane dropped a bomb near a forward operating base camp in Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan on December 13, 2009. US President Barack Obama vowed December 10 that Afghanistan would not become a 'permanent protectorate' of the United States as he defended his decision to begin withdrawing US forces in July 2011. In a December 1 speech announcing he would send 30,000 more US troops to the war, Obama named a date for a drawdown to begin but he has not stated a deadline for completion of the withdrawal. (Tauseef Mustafa / AFP / ***** Images) |
|
