I don’t believe in /sarc tags, but to clarify, I’m not being completely serious here.
On a more real note, this is one of the initial steps to our withdrawal from Afghanistan. Now that we’ve made our point with the Taliban, we’re going to leave under amicable terms. We don’t want to fight each other for the next 100 years, and neither side is going anywhere under our ROE and their level of weaponry.
So, since we can’t beat them, and they can’t beat us, we’re going to part ways. Afghanistan isn’t going to end like WWII, it’s going to end like Vietnam. We’re going home, they’re staying, and hopefully it’ll be 50 years before we think of each other again.
Ah yes, I apologize for missing the sarcasm.
“...and hopefully it’ll be 50 years before we think of each other again.”
Sadly, Afghanistan will not end well. Judging by our current policies, this administration has a few objectives in their plan to withdraw from Afghanistan as well as Iraq. One of these objectives, and you can just refer to the OBL operation, is to discredit the Bush administration.
We all know that once US forces withdraw, the void will be filled by those who have the guns and power, which will be the Taliban.
The current administration will blame Bush for the mayhem which will inevitably ensue after our withdrawal. Don’t be surprised when liberal officials start to speak of “prosecution”, and, “war crimes” and the like in the same sentence after the Muslims assume power.
So...we “lose” another war?
Sad, isn't it? We have a defense budget that is larger than the next 5 nations put together, yet we can't decisively beat an enemy stuck in the 9th century.