Top US military officials, meanwhile, are preparing to lobby for a delayed withdrawal from Afghanistan. The US has set a target date for starting to pull out troops next summer. But the Washington Post reports the new Afghan war commander, General David Petraeus, is taking steps to emphasize developments on the ground that “would make a rapid withdrawal unwise.” Summarizing the military’s argument, a senior administration official said, “While we’ve been in Afghanistan for nine years, only in the past twelve months or so have we started doing this right, and we need to give it some time and think about what our long-term presence in Afghanistan should look like.”