Leaving Afghanistan

Although President Barack Obama did his best to put a positive spin on the review of the Afghanistan war released, the report itself offers scant hope that the United States can achieve its goals within an acceptable time frame and at an acceptable cost.

The president gamely said that U.S. strategy was “on track” and that “considerable gains” were being made against the Taliban and al Qaeda, and there is some evidence of that. But the report makes clear that the gains are fragile, the momentum reversible and the conditions going forward are challenging. In short, it’s still dicey.

The reasons for the lingering doubts about what is turning out to be America’s longest war are no mystery.

Absent a commitment to remain for years, which a war-weary American public would find unacceptable, the United States and its allies cannot fix what really ails Afghanistan.

In a sense, Obama confirmed as much, insisting that the United States would begin a “responsible reduction” of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in mid-2011, a message both to his domestic audience and to President Karzai that, yes, the United States is committed to a withdrawal even amid the uncertainty.

This is a message that Afghanistan’s president needs to hear and digest.

Perhaps this is his way of putting Karzai at ease, reassuring the notoriously insecure leader that he can rely on American support to encourage the president to improve his government.

The upside, if there is one, is that this year marks the implementation of a coherent strategy to combat the Taliban insurgency and undermine al Qaeda’s strength.

Obama faces a delicate balancing act — staying true to the withdrawal timeline but ensuring that Afghanistan never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists who can threaten U.S. interests.

He is due to make a decision next spring on whether to proceed with the scale-down. By then, U.S. troops will have been fighting in Afghanistan for nearly 10 years. Surely that is long enough.

— The Miami Herald