Posted on 09/01/2014 7:49:02 AM PDT by Hojczyk
It's not that Dempsey is unaware of the challenges facing Afghanistan. It's that the General, along with President Barack Obama, thought that the US would by now not only have an agreement with the Afghans, but thanks to a presidential election that was supposed to have already been decided that they'd be able to now deal with someone other than President Hamid Karzai when it came to deciding the future of the country.
All of which leaves the Obama administration and Dempsey with two options: stay and provide a measure of stability, or leave and run the risk of Afghanistan falling apart shortly after the last US flight leaves Kabul. If the election had remained on schedule, a new president could have finalized agreements that would ensure American/Afghan cooperation well into the next decade. Or, if that president opted to refuse, the US would at last have had a way out of Afghanistan.
But with a lame duck president and an undecided election, leaving now means that the chaos almost certain to follow would be blamed on the US. Another failed intervention on Obama's watch is something both the President and Dempsey want to avoid at all costs. As a result, no one in Washington is ready to hold the Afghans to a deadline. Hard on the heels of the Islamic State's resurgence, the fall of Kabul would make for a lousy presidential legacy.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.vice.com ...
King Barack is displeased with this turn of events.
The Sultan does not value stability where his favored Brotherhood or Wahhabists do not rule.
But Barack Obama already declared MISSION ACCOMPLISHED at the United Nations...
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