Over the past few weeks, President Barack Obama reportedly gave the go-ahead on new guidelines for U.S. missions in Afghanistan, The Associated Press reports.While the president's new orders will not affect the number of U.S. troops stationed in the country — total American forces in Afghanistan are expected to be lowered to 9,800 by the end of 2014 — it will impact the scope of the remaining troops' missions.Previous plans had limited troops to counterterrorism missions against al-Qaida, but the new guidelines will allow U.S.