Withdrawal of American Troops in Afghanistan Commences With Ceremony
Hundreds of American families breathed a sigh of relief yesterday as the first troops to leave Afghanistan as part of the U.S. drawdown started packing for home.
Reports say 650 members of the Iowa National Guard’s 1st Squadron 113th regime who oversaw the area of Parwan, held a ceremony officially marking their transfers from the military base.
In a ceremony located on a tented basketball court at the military base, soldiers beamed as a speaker read out a list of all of regime 113th’s accomplishments.
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Their highlights, according to AP, included: 14 high-value targets killed or captured, 52 consecutive days of keeping insurgent fire out of the Bagram base, 3,800 combat missions completed, and a total of 400 Afghan police officers trained.
When asked their sentiments on the war a majority of troops expressed opposite views of the general American public who feel that America have no business in foreign countries.
Pfc. Scott Silverblatt tells the AP, “If we leave, we’ve just messed up the whole country all over again.”
Military presence in the area will be drastically cut as just 300 members of the US Army will now man the area.
In a report by Reuters, Obama has announced plans to withdraw about a third of the 100,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan by the end of summer 2012.
