Obama et l'OTAN: la guerre en Afghanistan est terminée

"“Combat will end at the stroke of midnight,” on Dec. 31, 2014, added retired Gen. Douglas Lute, Obama’s deputy national security adviser — when a reporter asked whether the president had meant it.

  Obama — who is usually allergic to any pronouncement that could be remotely interpreted as “Mission Accomplished” — has never said anything quite as strong as any war will be “over.”

 That signaled, aides said, a determination to cut off even the slightest suggestion that he could be talked into a longer commitment. It was also a brushback pitch against GOP presidential opponent Mitt Romney, who has criticized virtually every strategic announcement Obama has made on Afghanistan, although he has not produced a detailed alternative yet.

“This should be a good issue for us,” a Democratic strategist said. “If anyone was paying attention.”

Obama — a war president with an anti-war base — finds himself in an odd, paradoxical position as he hashes out the complex details on an Afghanistan endgame with 27 of his NATO allies, including France, which has accelerated its own withdrawal from the war-wracked country.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76552.html