U.S. Will Complete Afghan Pullout by End of 2016, Obama to Say --- WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to withdraw all combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2016, a senior administration official said on Tuesday, a rapid drawdown that will end more than a decade of American military engagement in the country where the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were incubated. -- Under the plan, which Mr. Obama is set to announce in the Rose Garden on Tuesday afternoon, the United States would leave 9,800 troops in Afghanistan after 2014, but reduce that number by roughly half in 2015, according to the official. By the end of 2016, the United States would be down to “a normal embassy presence with a security assistance office in Kabul,” similar to what now remains in Iraq. -- All of these deployments hinge on the United States’ signing a security agreement with Afghanistan, which the administration has not yet been able to do. -- “We will only sustain a military presence after 2014 if the Afghan government signs the Bilateral Security Agreement,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Both Afghan presidential candidates recently reiterated their intentions to sign the agreement quickly if elected.” -- During a surprise visit Sunday to troops at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, Mr. Obama said he hoped for some kind of residual American presence. But the new timetable indicates that the president is still determined to wind down the war swiftly and shift America’s resources to fighting a growing terrorism threat in the Middle East and North Africa. -- Mr. Obama is expected to offer a detailed foreign policy blueprint on Wednesday in a commencement speech at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., the same setting where he announced a troop surge in Afghanistan in 2009, pushing the total number of American troops past 100,000. -- There are currently about 32,000 American troops in the country, and military commanders had recommended leaving at least 10,000 after the formal end of the combat mission in 2014. The troops that remain will train Afghan security forces and support counterterrorism operations against the remnants of Al Qaeda, the official said. But from 2015 onward, they would be consolidated at the Bagram base and in Kabul. -- The American troops will be supplemented by those of NATO countries, but the alliance members are likely to follow the American lead in withdrawing from Afghanistan by the end of 2016. That would leave Afghanistan’s security largely in the hands of the Afghans. -- “I think it’s ambitious,” said Michèle A. Flournoy, who served as undersecretary of defense for policy during Mr. Obama’s first term. “If all goes extremely well, it’s something that might be manageable, but I think that the truth is, the implementation of this will be informed by how events on the ground evolve.” -- A senior American official said the residual force would include trainers and Special Operations forces to fight the remaining Qaeda loyalists, most of whom are believed to be scattered in the mountains and remote districts of eastern Afghanistan. -- With both Afghan presidential candidates, who will face each other in a runoff, having pledged to sign a security deal with the United States, the official said the administration was now comfortable announcing a troop number. Officials had previously wanted to wait until the security deal was signed before making any announcement. -- The 9,800 troops left behind is a larger number than some in the administration had wanted, but the sharp decline in American combat deaths this year removed some of the pressure to bring the troops out faster. -- The new drawdown proposal also is receiving criticism from those who are concerned by the pace of the troop removal and the size of the residual force. -- Jack Keane, the retired Army general who served as vice chief of staff of the Army during the Bush administration, said the withdrawal schedule projected by Mr. Obama was too fast and too rigid. General Keane said that 9,800 American troops “is absolutely the bare minimum to get the job done” and that twice that number was what was required. -- The rapid shrinkage and consolidation of the force in Kabul and Bagram, he said, would make it harder for the United States to carry out counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan and buttress the Afghan’s military effort. Any withdrawal, he said, should be based on the conditions on the ground and not rigid dates. -- “Just arbitrarily pulling those forces out absolutely risks successful completion of the mission,” he said. - More, MARK LANDLER, NYTimes, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/28/world/asia/us-to-complete-afghan-pullout-by-end-of-2016-obama-to-say.html