How The Afghan War Will Be Decided

NATO soldiers with at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on May 16, 2013. (Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

How The Afghan Conflict Will Be Decided -- Michael Hirsh, The Atlantic

A horrific week for U.S. casualties reaffirms President Obama's rush to rely on the Afghan army. But can they handle it?

KABUL, Afghanistan - Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi thumbs excitedly through a brochure prepared for him by Textron, the U.S. defense contractor. "This is what I want!" the Afghan army chief of staff says, pointing to a picture of the latest technology in armored troop carriers.

Outside Karimi's window, the giant, $92 million new defense headquarters that Washington is building for him is nearly finished; Karimi moves in in September. "Pentagon No. 1. This no. 2," Karimi's adjutant, Col. Mohammed Shah, says proudly in broken English. What Shah means is that the vast domed structure atop a hill--which resembles nothing so much as the Temple Mount--is expected to be the second-largest defense headquarters in the world, a distinct oddity in one of the poorest countries in the world. The Pentagon is also spending about a billion dollars on Karimi's pride and joy, a new Mobile Strike Force. That includes $58 million on brand-new armored vehicles designed especially for the Afghan army by Textron (and which are deemed so state of the art that Canada just bought some for itself).

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Update: Embassy Row: After Afghanistan for NATO -- Washington Times

My Comment: In the end .... Afghanistan's future will be decided by the Afghan's themselves .... which should have been the case starting a few years ago.

NATO's Plan for Afghanistan Post-2014 And Beyond

US soldiers near the village of Qol-e-Botonin the mountains of Wardak Province. (Reuters / Shamil Zhumatov)

NATO's Plan for Afghanistan Post-2014: A 'Stable Instability' -- Michael Hirsh, The Atlantic

The U.S. and its allies are talking about commitments through 2018 and beyond.

Many Americans think we're winding down in Afghanistan by the end of next year, for better or for worse.

We're not.

Despite America's evident desire to extricate itself from the nation's longest war, Taliban fighters, criminal gangs, and other insurgents continue to terrorize much of Afghanistan, making travel around the country as difficult as it's ever been. And the grim bargain that has dogged U.S. efforts in Afghanistan since the beginning of President Obama's "surge" still holds: The United States must find a way to supply and support an Afghan national army and police force that Washington has largely built but which is barely in its adolescence, although it is already 10 times the size of the fierce Taliban insurgency it is fighting.

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My Comment: If this analysis is true .... it is depressing. I do not see the light at the end of the tunnel in this Afghan mess.

Update: For the Afghan government, it appears that their focus is primarily on this.

Red Flags On The Afghan War

Murder Of U.S. Marine In Afghanistan Raises Red Flags About War -- Alex Newman, The New American

Before being murdered by an AK47-wielding “tea boy” on a base in Helmand Province, Lance Corporal Greg Buckley, Jr. (shown in inset) told his parents about a sense that he would not come home from Afghanistan. He was right. Now, his heartbroken family and a growing group of supporters across America want justice.

In an interview with The New American, the then-21-year-old Marine’s father, Greg Buckley, Sr., also raised troubling questions about the U.S. government’s war in Afghanistan, the controversial policies governing American forces there, and much more. He says it is time for politicians to do something for U.S. troops — and for American soldiers to come home now.

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My Comment: Could not agree more.

Another Afghan Civil War Is Looming

U.S. soldiers talk with an Afghan during a patrol near a village in the Khogyani district of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, March 29, 2013. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jon Heinrich

Britain’s Afghan war Is Over – But There Is Still No Sign Of Peace -- Con Coughlin

Without a deal between Hamid Karzai's Afghan government and the Taliban, there may well be another civil war.

To all intents and purposes, Britain’s war against the Taliban is over. We may still have around 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, but they are no longer involved in the kind of high-intensity combat operations that resulted in the seemingly endless procession of coffins through Royal Wootton Bassett, the quiet Wiltshire town that was granted royal patronage for its dignified handling of repatriations.

The conflict’s changing face is reflected in a dramatic reduction in British fatalities. In June 2010 – the Coalition’s first month in office – 20 soldiers lost their lives, as the brutal campaign to defeat the Taliban reached its peak. So far this year we have suffered only three fatalities – and one was a “green on blue” incident, when an Afghan soldier killed his British counterpart.

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My Comment: Like the Iraqis in Iraq .... this conflict is now going to be between Afghans in Afghanistan ... as it should.

Are We Repeating Vietnam In Afghanistan?

U.S. Army Sgt. Dionicio Montano, left, uses his binoculars to scan a ridge while providing security for a shura at the Marawara District Center in Afghanistan's Kunar province, March 20, 2013. Montano is assigned to the 101st Airborne Division's Integration Detachment Team Hawk, Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Ryan Hallgarth

Seeing Khe Sanh; Thinking Kabul -- Bing West, NRO

Like the South Vietnamese army in 1968, the Afghan army faces its government’s fall.

Khe Sanh — In the greenness of spring, this tiny plateau in southern Vietnam looks as tranquil as a cow pasture; in 1968, it was as cratered as the moon. In an epic battle, a Marine regiment defending Khe Sanh killed an estimated 20,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. In the half century since then, no enemy has again hurled thousands of troops against American forces; our firepower is too overwhelming. Here at Khe Sanh, 100,000 tons of explosives were dropped, ten times the amount expended in all of Afghanistan during the past decade.

In Afghanistan, we severely restricted our firepower in order to win popular support. That support was not achieved. Americans were viewed as infidel outsiders; they could not substitute for the absence of responsible indigenous officials. Although the Taliban were intensely disliked, the population did not rally behind a Karzai-led government that offered neither justice nor concern.

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My Comment: A sobering analysis from one who has seen both conflicts. This is my must read for today.

Is Peace Possible In Afghanistan?

U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Ysa Rubio prepares M112 demolition charges for an operation in Helmand province, Afghanistan, March 17, 2013. Rubio is an explosive ordnance disposal team leader assigned to the1st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company, Combat Logistics Regiment 2. The Marines disposed of unserviceable ammunition, unexploded ordnance and other military items. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Anthony L. Ortiz

Afghanistan After The War Is Peace Possible? -- Ahmed Rashid, New Republic

Will Afghanistan, which has been at war since 1978—thirty-four years, or a period longer than the two world wars and the intervening years combined—finally see a minimal kind of peace before American forces leave next year? Can the United States focus enough diplomatic energy to help generate a cease-fire and a political deal between Kabul, Islamabad, and the Taliban? Can America and its allies satisfy the wider region that includes Iran, Central Asia, India, China, and Russia, so that they do not start undermining Afghanistan’s still uncertain future?

For many months now the American media has been obsessed with the timetable for a drawdown of some 100,000 American and NATO troops, and with whether the 350,000-strong Afghan army and police can hold the line on their own against the Taliban, and with how many troops the United States will leave behind after 2014 to train Afghan forces and run its counter-terrorism campaign.

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My Comment: All wars do come to an end one day .... but for Afghanistan .... they will probably have to wait a bit longer.

MoD Study: NATO Is Repeating The Soviet Union's History In Afghanistan

Afghan government troops, left, ride past Soviet vehicles on the road in Kabul province in 1988 Photo: Reuters

Nato Troops In Afghanistan 'In A Similar Situation To Failed Soviet Invasion' -- Ben Farmer, The Telegraph

Nato troops in Afghanistan find themselves in a similar situation to the failed Soviet invasion and are also waging a campaign which is "unwinnable in military terms", according to a provocative Ministry of Defence analysis.

Both the Nato campaign and the 1979 invasion were initially attempts to impose "ideology foreign to the Afghan people", whose aims were quickly dropped when they ran into difficulty.

Nato, like the Soviets, has been unable to "establish control over the country's borders and the insurgents' safe havens", or "protect the rural population", according to the paper written by retired officers for an internal MOD think tank.

"The [Soviet] 40th Army was unable to decisively defeat the Mujahideen while facing no existential threat itself, a situation that precisely echoes [the Nato coalition's] predicament".

As combat troops leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the country will again be left "with a severely damaged and very weak economic base", reliant for years on vast sums of international aid.

The paper, Lessons From the Soviet Transition in Afghanistan, was prepared for the MOD's Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC), to provoke internal debate and challenge current military thinking.

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Update: The REAL reason the U.S. failed in Afghanistan -- Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy

My Comment: My uncle and two of my cousins served for the Soviet military in Afghanistan in 1980s .... and have repeatedly told me the same story over the years .... the West should have got out of Afghanistan circa 2003-2004. The war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda was more or less over and the purpose for keeping U.S./NATO forces in Afghanistan was no longer valid.

But nope .... nation building and God knows what else got involved .... and we are still there and will be for years to come. And as for the hundreds of billions spent and lives lost .... like the Soviet experience .... in the end it will all be for nothing.

What Went Wrong In Afghanistan?

U.S. Army Spc. Dominic Dambrowski leads a patrol into the city of Chorah in the Tarin Kowt district of Afghanistan's Uruzgan province, Feb. 22, 2013. Dambrowski is assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division’s Company C, 2nd Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jessi Ann McCormick

What Went Wrong In Afghanistan? -- Foreign Policy

We asked everyone from an ex-president of Pakistan to a former Afghan spy chief to weigh in.

What was the West's biggest failure in Afghanistan? Rory Stewart, who once walked across Afghanistan in winter and now walks the corridors of Whitehall, makes the case that the intervention was doomed from the outset, that "the West always lacked the knowledge, power, or legitimacy to fundamentally transform Afghanistan." Seth G. Jones, author of In the Graveyard of Empires, argues that history should have provided a lesson: "The U.S. failure to stop Pakistan is particularly egregious because the United States was involved in an almost identical program 30 years ago -- with the ISI's help -- against the Soviets in Afghanistan." Here's what some of the foremost experts on the conflict -- from former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to American Enterprise Institute scholar Frederick W. Kagan -- identified as the biggest mistakes of the long war.

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My Comment: A collection of opinions that makes this post one of my must reads for the weekend.

Outpost Restrepo Sums Up The Whole Afghan War

The Tragic Story Of Outpost Restrepo Sums Up The Whole Afghan War -- Paul Szoldra, Business Insider

Troops nicknamed Afghanistan's Korengal Valley "Death Valley" for a reason.

If it wasn't the sheer amount of bombs dropped (more than in the rest of Afghanistan combined at one point), it was the number of American lives consumed during brutal, most often daily fire fights — usually for a matter of feet and inches.

The hard-fought swath of ground in this instance was Combat Outpost Restrepo, an offshoot of a bigger outpost, and more importantly, an offshoot won following a brutal fight in the wake of Juan "Doc" Restrepo's death in combat.

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My Comment: If you have the chance .... catch the film Restropo. (the trailer is the above video)

The Reason Why This Afghanistan Province Is Falling Apart

Attack Highlights How A Corner Of Afghanistan Is Falling Apart -- Ben Arnoldy, Christian Science Monitor

The ambush and killing of 16 Afghan soldiers last weekend is one of the worst setbacks for the country's military in years.


Glance at a map of Afghanistan and the first thing you notice is the long finger of land jutting out of the country’s northeast – the Wakkan Corridor. The government’s ability to reach that area just became more questionable after an attack this weekend that killed 16 Afghan soldiers on the one road that connects it to Afghanistan proper.

I traveled that road in 2010. The area of the ambush – claimed by the Taliban – scared my driver then, who warned me that the next 15 minutes through the ominously-named Warduj district were going to be risky. Outside the windows of our jeep, we left a lightly-forested riparian village and struck east toward an open landscape ringed by the snowy mountains of the Pamir range, whose peaks form the roof of the world and whose slopes tumble into Pakistan, China, and Tajikistan.

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My Comment: In answer to the above title .... "why is this particular province of Afghanistan falling apart" .... can be summed up in one word .... drugs. Narcotics has always been the scourge of Afghanistan, and to have the central government exercise any control in desolate spots like the Wakkan Corridor is (in today's reality) a fantasy at best. Too many people are dependent on it, and couple this with the corruption that is endemic in the Afghan government .... impossible to enforce.

Afghanistan After 11 Years Of War

U.S. Marines take cover while providing security during a firefight at the stability platform in the village of Shurakay in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, Feb. 16, 2013. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Alejandro Pena

Afghanistan Following 11 Years Of US Combat: 'Not Much Different' -- NBC

KABUL, Afghanistan — I wondered, approaching Kabul over the snow-shrouded Hindu Kush mountains, what the story of the moment would be in the teeming city below.

It had been six years since I’d last visited Afghanistan’s capital, a short visit then that included an interview with President Hamid Karzai as part of the last of six long reporting assignments since 9/11— that one stretching from Paktika and Gardez in the southeast to Herat in the west.

More than 11 years had passed since my first Afghan assignment, over the Kyber Pass from Pakistan and then into Jalalabad days after the Taliban had fled; the arc of America’s longest war.
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"Not much different," offered my seatmate, a senior NATO official from one of the 40 countries remaining in the coalition that has alternately steered or suffered through Afghanistan’s bloody march toward stand-alone status as a reconstituted nation.

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My Comment: It takes generations (and more) to change a country's culture. The situation will gradually change in Afghanistan .... but probably in the next century .... maybe.

How The White House Let Diplomacy Fail In Afghanistan

Nasr and Holbrooke seated behind the laptop. Photos courtesy of Vali Nasr

The Inside Story Of How The White House Let Diplomacy Fail In Afghanistan -- Vali Nasr, Foreign Policy

"My time in the Obama administration turned out to be a deeply disillusioning experience."

It was close to midnight on Jan. 20, 2009, and I was about to go to sleep when my iPhone beeped. There was a new text message. It was from Richard Holbrooke. It said, "Are you up, can you talk?" When I called, he told me that Barack Obama had asked him to serve as envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He would work out of the State Department, and he wanted me to join his team. "No one knows this yet. Don't tell anyone. Well, maybe your wife." (The Washington Post reported his appointment the next day.)

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Update #1: Former Adviser Criticizes Obama on Afghan War -- New York Times
Update #2: Former adviser lashes out at ‘turf wars’ between Obama’s, Clinton’s aides -- Washington Times
Update #3: Afghanistan: Obama’s War of Choice For the Sake of Shallow Politics -- John Glaser, Antiwar.com

My Comment: A depressing read from one who saw it all.

Could We Have Bought Peace In Afghanistan By Paying Off The Preachers?

A geometry teacher at Habibia School in Kabul reads from the Koran during a break between classes. Students interested in learning more about Islam than what is taught in their religion classes. During the Taliban regime, Islam was one of the only subjects taught in school, but now the new Afghan government offers a broader education. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/BENJAMIN KRAIN

Missed Opportunity in Afghanistan: We Forgot to Pay the Preachers -- Mujib Mashal, Time

The assailants first came for Mullah Mohamed Hatif two years ago. It was a snowy winter night and he was making his way home after leading the evening prayer at his mosque. Two men, their faces covered, clubbed him in between his shoulders. He fell face down on the snow. They took his book ofsermons with thirty years of notes on its margins.

Hatif’s back hurt for 15 days, but undeterred, he continued to preach the kind of sermons many in his home district of Kohistan, in northeastern Afghanistan, believes made him a target. “Don’t blow up the bridge, the road,” the 63-year old would tell his congregation of roughly 800, his voice echoing in the village through the two sky-blue loudspeakers mounted on top of the one-story building. “Study chemistry, study biology, study English because we have huge mines that are untapped yet we can barely produce a plastic jug.” With a degree in education in 1960s, Hatif has taught science and literature in local high schools for nearly four decades. “I haven’t taken my hand off the chalk all these years,” he says proudly. He became a preacher by pursuing part-time religious studies for nearly 20 years.

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My Comment: Is this an opportunity lost .... probably .... but we will now never know.

Does Afghan President Karzai Want To Lose The War?

Afghan President Hamid Karzai (Reuters)

Treachery At The Top In Afghanistan -- Ralph Peters. New York Post

In his latest act of ingrate treachery, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered US Special Forces out of Wardak Province, the back door to Kabul. His demand came two weeks after he halted US close air support for the Afghan National Army, crippling his own military’s capabilities.

And that came atop multiple incidents when “our man in Kabul” blamed US troops for everything that went wrong in his wretched country.

That’s what you get for $600 billion these days. Without our support and protection, Karzai would have been swinging from a lamp post years ago — just as his predecessor Najibullah did in 1996. But stuck in our strategic battered-wife syndrome, we’ve continued to make excuses every time Karzai lashed out at us.

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My Comment: I usually disagree with Ralph Peters .... but on this story he is on the money.

Explaining Afghanistan In Drinking Terms

Stanley McChrystal, a retired four-star general, was commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan but resigned in the wake of a candid interview that was critical of Vice President Biden and others. H. Darr Beiser / USA TODAY

Gen. McChrystal Explains Afghanistan In Drinking Terms -- Washington Examiner

Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal may have been briefly ridiculed for his top beer choice of Bud Light Lime, but that hasn't stopped the retired general from using a good drinking analogy. In a talk earlier this week McChrystal delivered at the Sixth and I Synagogue, the former head of the war in Afghanistan explained President Hamid Karzai's precarious situation as the country's leader.

McChrystal pointed out how Karzai is completely reliant on foreign donors. "If you've never been completely dependent ... go. .. to a bar, go with four or five friends and somebody buys a round of drinks and you don't have any money," McChrystal explained. "Second round -- you don't have any money you can't buy them, at a certain point your friends don't resent it, but you resent it."

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My Comment: One can make the same analogy about the western world. Start cutting welfare/social assistance/pension .... and then wait for the angry riots (Greece, Spain, etc.).

Opium Is Currency In Afghanistan

Tamim Ansary On Afghanistan: Opium Is Currency -- Economist

TAMIM ANSARY is an Afghan-American writer and teacher; born in Kabul, he has lived in America since 1964. His 2003 memoir, “West of Kabul, East of New York”, describes the struggle between his Afghan and American self in a post-9/11 world. His bestselling book, “Destiny Disrupted”, tells a history of the world through Islamic eyes. His new work, “Games Without Rules”, zones in on the “often interrupted” history of Afghanistan. Mr Ansary directs the San Francisco Writers Workshop and teaches over-50s through the Osher Institute of Lifelong Learning at San Francisco State University and UCLA.

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My Comment: A sobering analysis on Afghanistan from an Afghan expatriate. It is a short Q&A, but it is worth a read.

The Endgame Is Now In Play In Afghanistan

U.S. soldiers embark a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft on Bagram Airfield as they complete their tour in Afghanistan, Jan. 29, 2013. The aircrews are assigned to the 455th Expeditionary Air Wing, Air Mobility Command. The C-17 is the backbone of U.S. Air Force strategic airlift operations supporting coalition forces in Afghanistan. U.S. Army photo by 1st Lt. Henry Chan

Afghan Endgame -- Mark Thompson, Time

No longer any point in pretending. The U.S. is in such a rush to pull out of Afghanistan, it is risking the sacrifice of 2,086 U.S. troops and more than a half-trillion dollars to put the “graveyard of empires” in its rear-view mirror.

President Obama declared in his State of the Union address Tuesday night that 34,000 U.S. troops now in Afghanistan will come home within a year. That will slash the total U.S. troop presence there from the current 66,000 to 32,000.

“This drawdown will continue, and by the end of next year our war in Afghanistan will be over,” Obama declared, as Vice President Joe Biden rose and applauded behind him, while House Speaker John Boehner remained resolutely seated. “It’s true different al-Qaida affiliates and extremist groups have emerged — from the Arabian peninsula to Africa. The threat these groups pose is evolving. But to meet this threat, we don’t need to send tens of thousands of our sons and daughters abroad, or occupy other nations.”

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My Comment: After 11 years of war .... it is time to leave. And while it would be probably ideal to keep anywhere from 20,000 - 30,000 U.S. soldiers in the country .... the fact is that there is no longer any political will among U.S. politicians and the U.S. public to keep troops in Afghanistan any longer. Elections have consequences .... and the electorate voted for leaders who have committed for our withdrawal.

Why We Lost In Afghanistan

U.S. Army Spc. Joseph Gonzalez, left, provides security as fellow team members walk down a dirt road in Bala Boluk, Afghanistan, Jan. 2, 2013. U.S. Navy photo by Lt. j.g. Matthew Stroup

Strategic Horizons: U.S. Must Learn the Real ‘Lessons’ of Afghanistan -- Steven Metz, WPR

Last week's meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai felt like a last desperate attempt to salvage a crumbling marriage: With the relationship clearly dying, the two sides quibbled over the pace of U.S. disengagement and the extent of future American aid and assistance.

But as U.S. involvement in Afghanistan winds down, Americans should already be thinking about what they can learn from their longest war. U.S. national security strategy, as I explained in my book “Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy,” is shaped by the lessons drawn, rightly or wrongly, from previous conflicts, wars and crises. Hence the U.S. reaction to future security challenges will reflect what it concludes about the Afghanistan conflict. It is imperative to get this right.

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My Comment: I am somewhat sympathetic to Steven Metz's analysis. No one likes foreigners coming in and dictating what one's country's policies should be. If given a choice .... being ruled by an inept government from one's tribal/cultural group is far more preferable than being ruled by an inept government from a foreign group. As to Afghanistan, the U.S. should have made the choice a year or two after the fall of the Taliban to leave the country. The choice was not made .... and we are now stuck with this perception among the Afghans that the corruption and ineptness of the Central government is the fault of the foreigners .... hence the rise of the Taliban. Is it too late to save Afghanistan .... I do not know. But I do know that we have overextended our stay .... and now is the time to leave.

The Case For Why We Should Leave Afghanistan Now

U.S. troops head to their assigned tactical vehicles after completing a pre-mission brief on Forward Operating Base Farah before meeting the Farah City mayor in Farah City, Afghanistan, Jan. 13, 2013. U.S. Navy photo by Lt. j.g. Matthew Stroup

Get The Deal Or Get Out Of Afghanistan -- Dov S. Zakheim, The National Interest

The war that Barack Obama once called a war of necessity no longer seems necessary to his administration.

The president and his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, made it clear at their joint press conference last week that the United States will hand over control of all Afghan territory to that country’s security forces in a few months, several months sooner than anticipated. “Afghanization” is therefore proceeding apace. Of course the administration prefers not to use the term because its analogue, “Vietnamization,” did not exactly prove to be successful. Whatever it is termed, however, the trajectory of the administration’s policy indicates that the current variant in Afghanistan is unlikely to meet with any more success than did its southeast Asian analogue four decades ago.

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My Comment: I prefer the "get out of Afghanistan" option over the "making a deal" option. And while I do not expect the Afghan government to agree to some acceptable status of forces agreement (SOFA), recent comments from Karzai and others make me wonder if the Afghans are entertaining the idea of  making it impossible for U.S. forces to remain .... preferring to be left alone without U.S. or NATO interference.

What Is President Obama's Afghan Strategy?

Medical Evacuation - A UH-60 Black Hawk medical evacuation helicopter lands as U.S. Army paratroopers secure the area in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, July 23, 2012. The soldiers are assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team and the helicopter crew is assigned to the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade. The soldiers evacuated a wounded insurgent. U.S. Army photo by Capt. Thomas Cieslak

Exit, Minus Strategy -- James Traub,, Foreign Policy

Barack Obama has clearly decided to cut his losses in Afghanistan. Will all hell break lose when he does?

President Barack Obama listened to his generals the first time around; now he knows better. The Obama of 2009, new to the job, unsure of his relationship to the military and perhaps slightly overawed by his superstar commanders, David Petraeus and Stanley MacChrystal, agreed to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in the name of a counterinsurgency campaign he didn't quite believe in. The Obama of 2013 is prepared to overrule the recommendation of his current commander, Gen. John Allen, and leave few -- if any -- troops behind after U.S. combat units pull out at the end of 2014. That's what's known as a learning curve.

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My Comment: President Obama is responding to the overwhelming opinion among Americans that we should be out of Afghanistan. Is there a strategy .... it certainly has not been made public. Will all hell break loose when we leave .... not necessarily. Afghanistan has been in a state of turmoil for centuries .... I do expect this to continue long after we are gone.