Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Is Now The Time For America To Abandon Afghanistan?

US Army soldier Norma Gonzales reads a magazine next to fellow soldiers while waiting to be ferried by a helicopter to different US military bases in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan. © REUTERS/ Erik De Castro/Files

Ted Galen Carpenter, National Interest: Time for America to Abandon Afghanistan

“Continuing to backstop such inept clients with U.S. troops merely wastes American lives”.

Experts and pundits were stunned last week when Taliban forces overran most of the northern Afghan city of Kunduz. Although government troops appear to have retaken portions of the city, they were able to do so only with substantial assistance from the U.S. combat units that are still in the country. Now General John Campbell, the U.S. commander, is urging President Obama to delay the planned withdrawal of the remaining 9,800 U.S. troops and to retain a permanent garrison that is much larger than the president’s plan for 1,000 military personnel. If President Obama unwisely complies with that request, Afghanistan will be on its way to being a permanent nation-building quagmire for Washington.

WNU Editor: This is not going to happen under President Obama's watch.

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