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US Military: Too Soon to Discuss Afghanistan Troop Withdrawal

Carla Babb

   Ayaz Gul contributed to this report.

   PENTAGON -- The top U.S. military officer says it's too soon to talk
   about an American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan or the future of
   U.S. counterterrorism forces there, as peace talks with the Taliban
   continue.

   "I'm not using the 'withdraw' word right now," Marine Gen. Joseph
   Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters
   Wednesday at the Pentagon.

   Dunford was speaking at the first on-camera Pentagon briefing by a
   secretary of defense and the chairman in exactly one year.

   Dunford expressed hope that a peace agreement would cause "a disruption
   of the status quo" needed to move toward a resolution to the 18-year
   conflict.

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