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"President Obama plans to announce his decision on the scale and pace of troop withdrawals from Afghanistan in a speech from the White House at 8 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday evening. "

"President Obama plans to announce Wednesday evening that he will order the withdrawal of 10,000 American troops from Afghanistan this year, and another 20,000 troops, the remainder of the 2009 "surge," by the end of next summer, according to administration officials and diplomats briefed on the decision. These troop reductions are both deeper and faster than the recommendations made by Mr. Obama's military commanders, and they reflect mounting political and economic pressures at home, as the president faces relentless budget pressures and an increasingly restive Congress and American public."

"Nearly two dozen generals have commanded troops from the United States and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, since the American invasion in late 2001 - with five U.S. generals running both commands in the past five years alone."

" The United States and Afghanistan faced potentially divisive issues such as immunity for U.S. troops as the two sides began talks Thursday on a security agreement that will shape America's military presence in the country after the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops in two years."

"WASHINGTON - The U.S. intends to wage a counterterrorism campaign inside Afghanistan even after the main U.S. combat force leaves in 2014 in order to prevent al-Qaida from fulfilling its ambition to re-establish a sanctuary there, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday."

"An Army lieutenant colonel who accused senior U.S. officials of concealing bad news about the war in Afghanistan will receive the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling on Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Lt. Col. Daniel Davis laid out his concerns in "Truth, Lies, and Afghanistan,""

"It was just one brief exchange about Afghanistan with an aide late in 2009, but it suggests how President Obama's thinking about what he once called "a war of necessity" began to radically change less than a year after he took up residency in the White House. "

"SHINDAND, Afghanistan - Across nine square miles of arid flatland in Herat province lies evidence of the shattered past and robust present of Shindand Air Base. Less obvious is the uncertain future of the second-largest coalition forces airfield in Afghanistan, home to the nation's fledgling air force academy."

"The Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a report Wednesday looking at U.S. assistance to Afghanistan.... The Senate report called for our aid to Afghanistan to be far more sustainable, while questioning whether many of the programs the United States has conducted under the broad banner of "stabilization" have actually made Afghanistan more stable or secure."

"After months of internal deliberations, the Obama administration has decided to limit the expansion of Afghanistan's army and police forces over the next 18 months, largely to hold down the costs of training, equipping and paying them. The White House decision...also appears to signal that President Obama may approve only a modest reduction of U.S. troops in Afghanistan this summer...."

"The resolution that the United States Conference of Mayors passed on Monday calling on President Obama and Congress to "speed up the ending" of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was not nearly as strong as the one it passed 40 years ago, calling on President Richard M. Nixon to withdraw all American troops from Vietnam within six months. "

RE: the Obama speech: "the policy debate will most likely only scratch the surface of the issues in play and what's at stake for America in Afghanistan and the broader region."