Word: drawdowns
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...McChrystal drew praise for recalibrating U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan, the cost of the conflict kept being hammered home. In October, 58 U.S. soldiers were killed, the highest monthly tally since the war began in 2001. President Obama's plan to commit 30,000 more troops before beginning a drawdown in July 2011 led critics to question the logic of fighting a war that cannot, perhaps, be cleanly...
However, we remain skeptical that the president’s reasons for setting so specific a date to begin withdrawal are not purely political—as opposed to strategic. Obama emphasized that any drawdown starting in July 2011 will be conditional upon the situation that develops on the ground. Because this catch obviously holds the power to render the timeline meaningless, it seems the date is only a political concession to the nation’s left, meant to quell discontent among those who feel America should leave Afghanistan today...
...such, critics on the right, primarily Republican leaders, looking to take a jab at the president, who conflate the potential drawdown date with a total withdrawal of an American commitment to Afghanistan, seem to be deliberately misleading the public and are hardly being constructive...
Regardless, Obama’s stated rationale in support of the given timeline is sound enough. A drawdown date, however definite, will certainly incentivize the Afghan government to get its act together and try to take more responsibility for its own security. But given its current weakness, whether it can begin to effectively do this in just 18 months is far from a given...
Despite the uncertain road ahead, Obama is correct in asserting that, if Afghan security forces cannot begin to keep the Taliban at bay and al-Qaeda out of its borders on their own, an American military drawdown would be disastrous for America’s own security...