ASSOCIATED PRESS / JULY 2011
U.S. mulls full withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan by 2014
U.S. soldiers boarded a U.S. military plane, as they left Afghanistan, at the U.S. base in Bagram north of Kabul. The Obama administration gave the first explicit signal Tuesday that it might leave no troops in Afghanistan after December 2014, an option that defies the Pentagon's view that thousands of troops may be needed to keep a lid on al-Qaida and to strengthen Afghan forces.