WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers called for a reduced U.S. role in Afghanistan on Wednesday, piling pressure on the Obama administration to accelerate the end to a long, costly war as it debates an initial drawdown this summer.

Leading senators from both parties called the U.S. presence in Afghanistan excessive after nearly a decade of war as they considered President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the U.S. mission in Kabul.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers called for a reduced U.S. role in Afghanistan on Wednesday, piling pressure on the Obama administration to accelerate the end to a long, costly war as it debates an initial drawdown this summer.

Leading senators from both parties called the U.S. presence in Afghanistan excessive after nearly a decade of war as they considered President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the U.S. mission in Kabul.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As President Barack Obama plans his initial U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan, he and his military commanders are offering sharply different takes on how the death of Osama bin Laden will shape the war.

The disparate views, in public comments over the last week, appear to reflect a high-stakes, behind-the-scenes debate over how fast and how far to withdraw U.S. troops from the South Asian country.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As President Barack Obama plans his initial troop drawdown in Afghanistan, he and his military commanders are offering sharply different takes on how the death of Osama bin Laden will shape the war.

The disparate views, in public comments over the last week, appear to reflect a high-stakes, behind-the-scenes debate over how fast and how far to withdraw troops from the South Asian country.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. and Afghan officials are pushing ahead with talks on a deal to define the long-term American role in Afghanistan, possibly easing worries among some Afghans that Washington will walk away when foreign forces go home.

This week, the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai submitted a counterproposal to a U.S. draft of the “strategic partnership” agreement, Afghan officials said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, with Osama bin Laden dead and a fiscal crisis on his hands at home, looks set to announce an initial U.S. troop withdrawal from the costly Afghan war that could be larger than previously expected.

Some current and former officials say Obama could easily announce a pullout of at least 10,000 troops over the next year as the administration seeks to capitalize on gains against the Taliban in the south and the Navy SEAL raid last month that killed the al Qaeda leader in Pakistan.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, with Osama bin Laden dead and a fiscal crisis on his hands at home, looks set to announce an initial U.S. troop withdrawal from the costly Afghan war that could be larger than previously expected.

Some current and former officials say Obama could easily announce a pullout of at least 10,000 troops over the next year as the administration seeks to capitalize on gains against the Taliban in the south and the Navy SEAL raid last month that killed the al Qaeda leader in Pakistan.

WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) – Osama bin Laden’s death has
reopened a high-stakes debate in Washington over the U.S. role
in South Asia, where 100,000 troops are fighting a costly war
in Afghanistan next door to a fragile, nuclear-armed and
suspicious Pakistan.

President Barack Obama’s aides are divided between a “hug
them” or “hit them” approach to dealing with Pakistan, where
anger at the May 2 raid that killed bin Laden on Pakistani soil
is matched in Washington by angry new questions about
Islamabad’s ties to militants.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – NATO has adopted a more aggressive approach to air strikes in Libya, Western officials say, after two months of attacks on Muammar Gaddafi’s government have failed to prompt the defiant leader to resign.

U.S. and European officials told Reuters this week that the targeting by NATO air strikes against sites including military headquarters recently has become more “aggressive.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Despite battlefield gains against insurgents in southern Afghanistan, the United States is failing to win over Afghans in the heartland of the Taliban, a new study shows.

Almost 90 percent of men polled in contested districts in southern Afghanistan believe foreign military operations are bad for them, according to research by the International Council on Security and Development, or ICOS.