Thursday, February 02, 2012

Getting Out of Afghanistan Early Seems Wrong

A faster end to U.S. combat in Afghanistan could give President Barack Obama an election-year lift.
It may also demoralize Afghans who fear a return to the austere rule of the Taliban and hope that reconciliation between all parties would deliver a better alternative.

-from a Reuters report today that the US announced that it will withdraw its combat troops a year earlier than previously announced, taking the Kabul government by surprise.

Surely this is not some cynical move by the Obama administration to save his re-election.

I recall that when we went into Iraq, then Florida Senator Bob Graham, a Democrat and a decent man, was very critical of the Bush Administration, arguing that the central theater of war should be Afghanistan (we were already there, but not the way we were about to be in Iraq.)  This was also a theme during President Obama's campaign for President.  Now this. 





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