Wars, Troop Withdrawal | featured news

The U.S. official in charge of overseeing reconstruction in Iraq says the country is more dangerous than it was a year ago, a blunt assessment that comes five months before American troops are scheduled to leave.

The first U.S. troops have left Afghanistan as part of President Barack Obama's planned drawdown of about a third of the 100,000 U.S. forces there during the next year.

Iraqi leaders aim to decide within two weeks whether American troops should stay in the country past the end of the year, Iraq's president announced.

Sen. John McCain said Sunday the Obama administration is taking an unnecessary risk in drawing down the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he will withdraw 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by year's end and a total of 33,000 by the summer of 2012.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday there would be no hasty U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and Washington expected the same from its allies.

The general told a Senate panel that a 2011 deadline for the start of troop withdrawals was just “the beginning of a process.”

Iraq's parliament on Monday approved an amended law needed to hold an election next year, but the new text risks being vetoed a second time -- which could delay both the vote and next year's partial US troop withdrawal.

There are just a few days left before U.S. Army Capt. Nathan Williams finally gets to go home. As violence in Iraq is sharply down and Iraqi forces are taking more responsibilities, the United States is preparing for the withdrawal of all combat forces by August 2010 and everyone else by 2012. That means in the coming days and months, tens of thousands of soldiers will be making the same journey as Williams and his troops, from Iraq to Kuwait and finally to the U.S. — the long journey home.

Iraq's Cabinet has signed off on a $67 billion draft budget for 2010 that is well below what officials have said is needed, raising concerns that the shortfall will derail the progress of Iraqi security forces just they are taking over from withdrawing American troops.