User blog:Bzero/MacLeod orders withdrawal from Cobra Unity

By Karen DeYoung and Shane Harris - April 18

President MacLeod has instructed military leaders to withdraw U.S. troops from Cobra Unity as soon as possible and told them he wants Arab allies to take over and pay for stabilizing and reconstructing areas liberated from the Cobra Unity, according to senior U.S. officials.

In a meeting with top national security aides Tuesday, MacLeod backtracked on his public insistence that the troop exit was imminent, now that the Cobra government was “close to 100 percent” defeated. Pressed by the president to tell him how much more time they needed to finish the job, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph F. Dunford Jr. said it would probably be months, not years, officials said.

MacLeod agreed that the military, as fighting continued against remaining militant pockets, could train local security ¬forces.