At The Guardian, Ewen MacAskill, Julian Borger, Jon Boone and Nicholas Watt report:
The killing of Osama bin Laden has opened up divisions inside Barack Obama's administration over whether the withdrawal of US troops in Afghanistan, which is scheduled to begin this summer, should be bigger and faster than planned.
Politicians, soldiers and analysts from the US to Afghanistan have debated whether the removal of the al-Qaida leader will shorten the war and open the way for reconciliation with the Taliban.
The Pentagon, braced for a Taliban onslaught in the spring, wants only a token cut of about 2,000 of the 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan. But members of Congress called for significant cuts given that Bin Laden had been the reason for going into Afghanistan, a view shared by some in the White House who are thinking about Obama's re-election chances next year.
Obama is due to announce in July the scale of the troop drawdown.
...Barney Frank, a Democratic congressman who was until this year chairman of the House finance committee, told the ThinkProgress website: "We went there to get Osama bin Laden. And we have now gotten Osama bin Laden. So yes, I think this does strengthen the case." He added: "We just killed Osama bin Laden, and I think that takes a lot of the pressure away – a lot of the punch away from the argument that 'Ooh, it will look like we walked away'."
Richard Lugar, the most senior Republican on the Senate foreign affairs committee, speaking at a hearing on Afghanistan, referred to the $100bn (£61bn) the US planned to spend in Afghanistan next year. "It is exceedingly difficult to conclude that our vast expenditures in Afghanistan represent a rational allocation of our military and financial assets," he said.
Larry Sabato, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia, predicted: "One of the unintended consequences of Bin Laden's death will be American soldiers coming back faster.Listen to the man in the street. I can't count the number of times I have heard people say 'We can get out off Afghanistan faster'.
"People think the peace dividend is getting out of Afghanistan. By the summer, it will be unavoidable. We will have to get out faster." ...
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2009
Under President Obama, the Senate is the single roadblock to passing the Employee Free Choice Act. That's why the bill was such a big part of the campaign against Democratic Senate candidates in 2008. And it's a fair bet that's part of why Norm Coleman is receiving so much national Republican support in his sore-loserdom in Minnesota — Al Franken is a needed vote for Employee Free Choice.
Obama's Cabinet selections mean that there are a few Democratic senators who didn't have to take positions on this issue during the campaign, though — and at least one of them is wobbling. Newly appointed Colorado Senator Michael Bennet has been refusing to commit at town hall meetings. ...
Michael Bennet got his job without facing the voters of Colorado -- the same voters who gave Mark Udall an 11-point victory despite the millions of dollars of advertising targeting him for his support of the Employee Free Choice Act. He should take a page from Betsy Markey, David Canter, and Darcy Burner and support giving workers the freedom to join unions if they choose, without intimidation or foot-dragging from the bosses.