It's the same debate, but the White House is working harder now to keep troops in Afghanistan than it did in similar but failed discussions in Iraq in 2011.
White House officials say they are considering leaving no American troops in Afghanistan after the end of combat in December 2014, although the administration remains committed to preventing the country from becoming a haven for al-Qaida.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the Obama administration is nearing a decision in the next few weeks on how many U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan -- and for what purposes -- after the U.S.-led combat mission ends in 2014.
Nearly two years after President Barack Obama ordered 33,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to tamp down the escalating Taliban violence, the last of those surge troops have left the country.
The U.S. military's top general says the problem of rogue Afghan soldiers and police turning their guns on American and allied troops is a "very serious threat" to the war effort.
Homeland security officials in Philadelphia say they've intercepted a destructive insect species that hitched a ride to the U.S. aboard a military plane.