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We are dealing with things in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And pulling the majority of troops out prematurely will have it's consequences. The SOFA agreement was agreed upon to give the Iraqi enough time to reach certain points that made sense to the military on both sides.
One thing not being discussed enough is the fact we shall see no large number of combat troops in Afghanistan. The logistics are as tough as they are. It is a totally different type of SASO then Iraq was in many ways. We have no reliable close routes such as we had with Kuwait just to name one to truck in the huge amount of daily supplies of all types.
We are going to have to depend on the Russians to allow us to ship by trains most everything that enters Afghanistan in the near future, if Pakistan cannot guarantee a safe means for the existing suppply routes.
The Afghanistan SASO according to Petreous as well as a number of other high ranking generals over the past few years also differs quite a bit as how one can operate in high elevated terrain. So don't expect some type of surge with huge numbers of combat troops along with all the required support units to simply move into Afghanistan.
And interestingly there where already plans on the table to send some thirty thousand combat harden Marines into A in the spring.
As for the Iraqi shouldering some responsibility. What do you think they have been doing for the past few years. They continue to build upon their successes. But they need huge amounts of logistics and effective Intel to yet be put into place, not to mention their slowly budding air force.
Keep the original agreed upon SOFA with them would have enabled them to come along much further, with less risk of Iran playing some nasty games before the Iraqi where able to protect themselves adequately. Imagine. They don't have one jet or prop yet in place to go against Iranian aircraft.
The SOFA included many things to be established before we pulled out. Now this Zero is going to screw things up. I wonder how long Gates will stay in place, and for that matter if Mullins, Petreous and others may decide to call it a day.
I see the same crap that happened during the Clinton years coming to past again.