What's Next For Afghanistan

U.S. troops pull security as their teammates approach the landing zone during a mission to Pur Chaman district, Farah province, Afghanistan, Sept. 26, 2012. The mission marks the first time coalition forces have been to the Pur Chaman district in more than a year. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jonathan Lovelady

'Huge Uncertainty' In Afghanistan -- An Interview With Max Boot, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Council On Foreign Relations

President Obama has withdrawn the last of the so-called 30,000 "surge troops" he sent to Afghanistan in 2009 and 2010, but Max Boot, a veteran military analyst for CFR, says there are "huge uncertainties about the outcome" in the country. He says that "we certainly do not have the sense of victory in sight that we saw in Iraq when the surge troops were pulled out of there." Even though President Obama campaigned in 2008 on a platform of bolstering forces in Afghanistan, "he has done very little to rally public support for the war effort, again because I think he's fundamentally ambivalent about the war himself," Boot says. He also says there are significant questions about long-term U.S. commitment "because neither President Obama nor [Republican presidential nominee] Governor Mitt Romney is eager to talk about Afghanistan."

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My Comment: A culture of corruption, tribalism, religious sectarianism coupled with poverty and a economy that is still solely based on foreign aid and drugs has .... after 11 years .... still the status quo in Afghanistan. But on the bright side .... millions of children and young adults now know how to read, and many Afghans have now had a glimpse that life can be better than what they have been living with for the past thousand plus years.