Why are troops coming home from Afghanistan?
During yesterday's congressional testimony, General Petraeus indicated that some American troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan but declined to specify how many.
It's very difficult to understand the Obama administration's approach to Afghanistan. On the one hand, they have adopted a counter-insurgency strategy which, if it is to succeed, will take years, if not decades. I don't believe the approach is a good idea, but it's the one the administration has embraced. So if that is the case, why send any troops home at all this summer? It's seems obvious to me that the troop reductions will be a purely token gesture, one driven by political expediency and designed to mollify the president's critics. But those critics will obviously understand that a few thousand troops does not entail the end of the counter-insurgency effort.
The worst of all worlds is to settle on a resource-intensive strategy and then not provide adequate resources.
(AP Photo)
