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[By Yang Yongliang/China.org.cn]

U.S. President Barack Obama announced a plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan following his latest surprise visit to the central Asian country.

Obama's successful bid to enter the White House has followed his commitment to "change," as reflected in his opposition to Iraq War, since the war has deeply affected U.S. foreign policy over the last decade.

With Obama's pledge to make changes, more U.S. citizens have outgrown the age of blindly supporting "anti-terrorist" wars. But due to the inertia present in politics as well as in wars, Obama did not pull out the U.S. troops in Iraq within half a year after taking office, despite promising to do so.

Withdrawing troops from Afghanistan is very difficult. Obama first decided to increase the U.S military presence in Afghanistan, and later decided to pull the troops out. But even so, there will still be up to 10,000 U.S. soldiers there for non-combat missions. There will be a small U.S. military presence there even when Obama completes his second term.

In his address at the commencement ceremony at West Point on May 28, Obama warned that the United States cannot afford to get involved in new wars. The president's remark amounted to a conclusion about the wars that the United States has been involved in.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy described the war on Iraq as the darkest era in foreign policy since the founding of the United States.

"They bungled the pre-war diplomacy on Iraq, insulted our friends, and left us more isolated in the world than ever before in our history, unable to obtain real allied support," he said. On Kennedy's encouragement, Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton started to run for presidency under the general guideline of withdrawing troops.

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