Bin Laden's demise fuels calls for Afghan pullout

By Mike McCarthy May 5, 2011, 20:21 GMT

Washington - The killing of Osama bin Laden appears to have produced the unintended consequence of heightening demands on President Barack Obama to bring a speedier end to the US military mission in Afghanistan.

Since bin Laden's demise, numerous members of Congress have pressured Obama to get out of the costly war and focus more on domestic problems now that the world's top terrorist is dead.

Several Republicans and Democrats have joined forces arguing that with ballooning deficits, the nation cannot afford to continue spending 8 billion dollars a month to support a weak government in Afghanistan.

Lawmakers submitted legislation in the House of Representatives on Thursday calling on Obama to set concrete dates for removing the 100,000 US soldiers deployed in Afghanistan.

'Now that bin Laden is dead and al-Qaeda is scattered around the globe, does it really make sense to keep using over 100,000 US troops to occupy Afghanistan and prop up a corrupt government? I don't think so,' said Democratic Representative Jim McGovern, a co-sponsor of the bill.

Obama plans a drawdown of some US forces starting in July, with the goal of transferring security responsibility to the Afghan government by 2014. The White House has not identified further withdrawal dates in the interim, saying those decisions will be based on conditions on the ground.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said this week that the United States will stay committed to Afghanistan and that bin Laden's death provides a fresh opportunity for progress.

'We must take this opportunity to renew our resolve and redouble our efforts,' she said. 'In Afghanistan, we will continue taking the fight to al-Qaeda and their Taliban allies, while working to support the Afghan people as they build a stronger government and begin to take responsibility for their own security.'

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, expected to arrive in the US for a weekend visit, said earlier this week that terrorism remains a threat and the alliance must remain focused on Afghanistan.

'International terrorism continues to pose a direct threat for the security of our countries and for global stability, so we need to stay in Afghanistan for as long as is necessary to fulfil our mission,' he told a news conference in Brussels.

Obama is expected to address his Afghan policy in Afghanistan when he visit soldiers on Friday at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Thursday that the killing of bin Laden was a 'singular event' as part of the wider strategy to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and the Pakistan border region.

'The president's policy remains unchanged,' Carney said.

Some believe that the war on terrorism can be waged without deploying tens of thousands of troops, citing the assault on bin Laden's compound with a small team of elite operatives.

'Amid the worldwide celebration of bin Laden's death, we must recognize that the nature of this war does not require the placement of 100,000 troops in one country,' Republican lawmaker Jason Chaffetz wrote in an editorial for CNN this week.

'It was not the 100,000 troops that took out bin Laden. We can bring many of those troops home and still effectively fight terrorism around the world.'

Others lawmakers believe a premature exit from Afghanistan would amount to a missed opportunity to step up pressure on the insurgency.

'It would be a huge mistake and a catastrophic blunder to think that the killing of Osama bin Laden ends our need to help Iraq or Afghanistan,' said Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican. 'What we ought to do is pour it on now. We've got momentum.'

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