“Lynn Cheney seem bent on keeping us there.”
Before you start coming down on Cheney, you should realize she’s not alone in her concern for diplomatic solutions in Afghanistan. Cheney and Mac Thornberry are the two that have vocally been quoted mainly because of the name with Chaney and that Thornberry is GOP. But the decision to slow Trump came from the Crow (Jason, Dem, Colorado) and Cheney from force reduction prohibiting the expenditure of monies to reduce the number of U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan below 8,000 without a series of conditions first being met.
For these troop reductions from Afghanistan to be allowed, the Defense Department must be able to certify, among other things, that leaving Afghanistan “will not increase the risk for the expansion of existing or formation of new terrorist safe havens inside Afghanistan” and “will not compromise or otherwise negatively affect the ongoing United States counter terrorism mission against the Islamic State, al Qaeda, and associated forces.” Another requirement is an assessment of whether any “state actors have provided any incentives to the Taliban, their affiliates, or other foreign terrorist organizations for attacks against United States, coalition, or Afghan security forces or civilians in Afghanistan in the last two years, including the details of any attacks believed to have been connected with such incentives.
The vote on that from the house armed service committee was a pass at 45 - 11. So there are a lot of representatives in disagreement with how it is being done. More than just Cheney.
rwood