Just days after a U.S. soldier allegedly went on a shooting rampage that killed 16 civilians in Afghanistan, this morning Afghan President Hamid Karzai called for a U.S. troop pullback. President Karzai called for NATO-led forces to move out of Afghan villages and rural areas and told visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that Afghan troops should take the lead for nationwide security in 2013, a year earlier than is now scheduled. Rod Nordland is a foreign correspondent for our partner The New York Times.
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