“There are, however, concrete differences between the U.S.-sponsored Iraqi army and police forces, and the Afghan National Army. The Iraqi security forces are predominantly Shia. Despite multiple appeals from both the U.S. military and the U.S. government to bring more Sunnis into their ranks, the Iraqi government has instead been weeding them out. In Afghanistan, the ethnic makeup of the army is more balanced: Pashtuns make up 43 percent, Tajiks 32 percent, Hazara 12 percent and Uzbeks come in at 10 percent, with the rest made up of smaller ethnic groups.
But many of the soldiers are still illiterate despite years of training and billions of U.S. dollars, and the desertion rate remains high. They’ve struggled to face Afghan Taliban fighters in combat, and their loyalties have been scrutinized after periodic attacks on Western military personnel embedded with them. Taliban units have been able to launch spectacular attacks on targets within heavily fortified Kabul and the endemic corruption within the Afghan government and its security forces has prompted concerns about authority vacuums once the U.S. leaves.
Critics of the withdrawal plan in Washington say a lower number of U.S. troops will limit U.S. ability to operate against Al-Qaeda affiliates operating in Afghanistan and gather intelligence — something Washington is currently struggling with in Iraq as it scrambles to understand and identify ISIL members and their allies, and line up possible targets for attack.”
We could be in Afghanistan for a thousand years and the savages will still end up in control.
When Obama tried to renegotiate Bush's Status of Forces Agreement, the Iraqi Govt insisted that they wanted legal authority over the residual US Military force that would remain in Iraq, so Obama pulled all US Military out of Iraq.
The same thing could happen in Afghanistan. If Afghanistan insists on having legal authority over the residual US Military force in Afghanistan, Obama will pull all of them out.
That is a long standing US policy that applies to all US military around the world.