Did President Obama Lose Afghanistan?

U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Juan Urena provides security during a patrol in Helmand province, Afghanistan, March 27, 2014. Urena is a squad leader assigned to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Zachery B. Martin

How Obama Lost Afghanistan -- Elise Jordan, Daily Beast

He said it was ‘the right war.’ Then he did everything he could to screw it up.

Despite the violence and uncertainty surrounding this Saturday’s election for a new Afghan President, there’s one positive —Hamid Karzai, the sitting president and the architect of much of the country’s unrest, is not on the ballot this time. But while Karzai must cede power under the rules of the Afghan constitution, the other leader whose mismanagement helped tank Afghanistan abandoned his influence in what he once called “the right war” a long time ago. That leader is President Barack Obama.

An outright winner is unlikely on Saturday, unless one campaign is far superior in the art of vote fraud. The most dramatic political comeback belongs to Dr. Ashraf Ghani, a technocrat economist who previously served as Karzai’s Minister of Finance. Known for a volatile temper—according to former colleagues, he once broke his wrist by slamming his hand into a meeting table—Ghani only earned three percent of the vote against Karzai in 2009. Today, Ghani polls as the frontrunner, dividing the margin of Karzai’s heir apparent, former National Security advisor and Foreign Minister Zalmay Rassoul, and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, an ophthalmologist with a fondness for flashy Italian suits. He gathered 30 percent of the vote in 2009, but declined to participate in a run-off against Karzai.

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My Comment: It is easy top blame President Obama for this mess .... and he does deserve some of the blame .... but the lion share of the disaster that is known as Afghanistan should rest on the shoulders of the Afghans themselves. Afghanistan has been an ongoing conflict for almost 35 years .... and here is an easy prediction .... expect 35 more years of conflict (if not more).