Obama Weighs Faster Afghan Exit

Owing to what U.S. officials are calling “strategic considerations”—namely, the rising cost of the war and the death of Osama bin Laden—President Obama’s national-security team is contemplating even steeper troop reductions in Afghanistan than those discussed weeks ago. There are still reservations given mixed results in getting Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s troops prepared to take the lead in the war, but the National Security Council is convening its monthly meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan on Monday, and will debate not only how many troops to get out in July, but also discuss setting a final date by which all U.S. "surge" troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan. Before the recent “strategic considerations,” officials were anticipating an initial drawdown of 3,000 to 5,000 troops. Gen. David Petraeus, however, sounded a cautious note, telling The New York Times on Sunday that the Taliban would try to “regain the momentum they had a year ago.”