Obama Considers Abandoning Afghanistan

[Valin]

Via Meadia:

7/10/13

 

Its the most open secret in Washington that Americas Afghanistan policy is in deep disarray. Afghan President Hamid Karzai was quick to try to derail the most recent attempt between the US and the Taliban to negotiate an end to the Afghan war; Karzai fumed that the effort was in reality an attempt to cut him out and make an American deal with the Taliban. In response, presumably, President Obama announced today that he was considering a zero option for Afghanistanleaving no troops behind to help the Karzai regime and its allies fend off a resurgent Taliban and stay in power after 2014.

 

Thats a dumb idea, says Peter Bergen, CNNs national security analyst. Why? Because doing so will convince the Taliban, just like in 2009 when Obama simultaneously announced a troop surge and withdrawal date, to wait us out. The more patient elements in the Taliban see that if they can only hang on until 2014, when most or all US troops will have departed, the only thing standing between them and the fragile government in Kabul would be the notoriously corrupt, questionably loyal, and usually incompetent Afghan army and police.

 

(Snip)

 

Working towards a political approach that brings an end to Americas Afghan commitment on reasonable terms is the right goal. Telegraphing our eagerness to leave has probably put that goal, never an easy one, out of reach. Hard choices lie ahead, and it seems clear that if the President is forced to choose between getting out in a bad way or staying put for the long haul, he will leave. If so, it will be difficult to explain what was gained by the surge or by five years of war under this President.

 

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"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!

So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth."

Revelation 3: 15-16