WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will keep 5,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan when he leaves office in 2017, according to senior administration officials, casting aside his promise to end the war on his watch and instead ensuring he hands the conflict off to his successor.
Obama had originally planned to pull out all but a small, embassy-based U.S. military presence by the end of next year, a timeline coinciding with the final weeks of his presidency. But military leaders argued for months that the Afghans needed additional assistance and support from the U.S. to beat back a resurgent Taliban and hold onto gains made over the last 14 years of American bloodshed and billions of dollars in aid.
Ann Romney excused herself, then laughed hardily as we began chatting this morning. When you have 10 rushed minutes to speak with someone as experienced with reporters as the former First Lady of Massachusetts, it doesn't make sense to start the interview by asking the same predictable questions she's answered and dodged a thousand times before.
We began instead by discussing the Fluffernutter recipe she included on page 11 of The Romney Family Cookbook. Written in 2013, an old photograph included in the book shows how much the family loves the All-American Fluffernutter. After Romney stopped laughing and caught her breath, she asked if it would be OK to use some of our 10 minutes to relate a family story. She said one of her boys summed up his disappointment with not having dad win his bid for the White House by saying, "Mrs. Obama's nutritional initiatives may be a good idea, but if dad were in the White House now, kids would get Fluffernutter sandwiches for lunch everyday and love it."
