Which begs the question, why the hell are we there in the first place. More Bush/Bliars' lies
I don't claim to know everything about why we are in Afghanistan now, but in my own mind I wonder why we EVER went into Iraq. At the time of the 9/11 tragedy, we did not think that the training camps or recruiters were in Iraq. We thought they were in the Afgani highlands somewhere. So OF COURSE we went into Iraq. The WMD intelligence was true - but dated. (Out of date.) One has to wonder if GWB had a delusion of the need to finish what daddy started?
Gang, I'm about as patriotic as it gets, but I don't believe that the USA can "do no wrong." I know it can, it has, and it probably will again at some indefinite future time. I only can hope to survive its mistakes. (As I'm sure our cousins across the pond wish to survive their own government's mistakes.)
I voted for GWB twice
only because his opponents scared me more. I didn't vote for Obama only because at that point it was almost literally a coin toss. (He lost the toss.)
I'll give Mr. Obama credit for trying to push the generals into a serious time-table for troop extraction. But there is this other factor that I must consider carefully as a reason why it might be better for the USA if they pushed back a little bit.
Before those troops come back, we are already looking at 10% unemployment now. Does the current regime want those troops back looking for jobs that don't currently exist? You have to look for ulterior motives.
GWB drove us into a recession. BO doesn't want to make it worse by piling on even higher unemployment and thereby driving up the entitlement rolls. Keeping the Afghani campaign alive would be a way to ease the troops out over a slower withdrawal profile. But then, what do I know about government at that level, right?