[Joe Brower]

You are correct up to a point -- the original mission in Afghanistan was to eliminate the Taliban and Al Queda.

But that is a far cry from the current state of mission-creep there, where it got changed to the usual bit of 'nation building', a lost cause. That's 'dying for your country', but to what end?

Too many of our service personnel have been killed or wounded since then attempting the impossible. And now we are at the point to where the 'brightest and the best' in Washington are admitting it, we're pulling out, Afghanistan will revert back to its natural condition as a failed state, and all the blood and treasure will be for naught.

This whole thing could have been largely handled now if the goalposts had not been altered.

Just my view from the saddle.

[Rockingham]

The larger strategic purposes of the Afghan War are not territorial or even directed at Afghanistan. They are instead to harass, burden, and kill Al Queda -- especially Bin Laden and other key leaders -- and to provide jihadists with an accessible place to fight US troops instead of focusing their energies on attacking US and Western civilian targets.

Those goals have largely been accomplished. Plausibly, we should now diminish our troop presence in Afghanistan and turn our attention to other strategic concerns. Opportunities beckon as the Arab and Muslim worlds are in a transition that may mark the beginning of a turn away from jihadism. So also are major risks approaching in the rise of Iran and its maturing nuclear weapons program.