The Obama administration's plan to withdraw some US troops from Afghanistan is a welcome sign the country can start defending itself, President Hamid Karzai said in remarks aired on Sunday.
"The number of troops that he announced will be withdrawn this year and the rest next year is a sign that Afghanistan is taking over its own security and trying to defend its territory by its own means, so we are happy with the announcement," Karzai told CNN in an interview.
"As for the number of troops, we have no opinion on that," he added. President Barack Obama unveiled on Wednesday a plan to remove 10,000 troops from Afghanistan this year and a total of 33,000 by the end of next summer, a pace some top military officials have said is too aggressive.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General David Petraeus, top US commander in Afghanistan, said in congressional testimony that Obama's drawdown was riskier than they recommended but that they backed the strategy to start winding down the nearly decade-old war.
Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, told CNN's "State of the Union" program on Sunday the planned drawdown appeared to be politically driven and could allow the Taliban to gain ground.
"The time line is just too darned close. The fact that it lines up to have those troops out before the first (US presidential) debate of 2012 is concerning to me mainly because the conditions on the ground have not changed," Rogers said. Karzai said information from local sources he has received indicated that "security in parts of the country has improved, that life is better now. Of course, not desirable, but better," he said.
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