Dempsey Visits Bagram, Explains Pullout Plan

A day after President Obama announced that U.S. forces would withdraw from Afghanistan if no bilateral agreement is reached, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff briefed commanders at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, on the White House decision’s implications. “What we were directed to do yesterday was to look at other options including completely retrograding,” Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said Feb. 26. “What is not a fait accompli is that we are going to zero,” by years end, Dempsey said. In the meantime, the chairman advised his charges that their missions to squelch the effectiveness of al-Qaida, Taliban, and Haqqani insurgents and bolster the effectiveness of Afghan national forces should continue.