Troop levels to top agenda for Obama-Karzai talks

[NewsCaster]

The pace of the troop withdrawal will be at the top of the agenda when the U.S. and Afghan leaders meet Friday. NBC News' Thanh Truong reports from Kabul.By Matt Spetalnick, ReutersWASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai will hold a critical round of talks on Friday that could help determine how fast the United States withdraws troops from Afghanistan and whether it leaves a residual force after 2014.

Hosting Karzai at the White House, Obama faces the challenge of pressing ahead with his re-election pledge to continue winding down the long war in Afghanistan while preparing the Afghan government to prevent a slide back into chaos and a Taliban resurgence once most NATO forces are gone.

Karzai's visit, which follows a year of growing strains in U.S.-Afghan ties, comes amid stepped-up deliberations in Washington over the size and scope of the U.S. military role in Afghanistan once the NATO-led combat mission concludes at the end of next year.

NBCNews

[Folami David]

Afghanistan has always been a troubled country that has always engaged in one form of Vice or the other