Obama Announces Halt of U.S. Troop Withdrawal in Afghanistan

[All Along The Watchtower]

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NYT.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Ugh.

[dead0man]

Does this surprise anybody?

[Nhoj]

Considering the ANA lost a fairly major city recently this shouldn't be a surprise.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Yeah, we don't want a repeat of Iraq where a group like ISIS (or even ISIS itself) will swoop in to take advantage of the vacuum.



As much as I want to be done with this part of the world and have Afghanistan have some semblance of a normal, functioning country, this is regretfully the price we have to pay to prevent what progress (lol) we/they have made from being lost.

[dead0man]

So, anybody have any idea why the Taliban didn't wait until the US and pals left and then started the shenanigans up again?  They're either very stupid, or they WANT to fight the US military.

[ElectionsGuy]

Thank you Obama for ending the wars! lmao

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Thank you Obama for ending the wars! lmao

His hands are essentially tied. The U.S. can't just go around invading places and withdrawing before they've finished the job, that's just bad international relations. If I was an optimist, I'd say something like "can't the U.S. Transition to a UN peacekeeper based mission?" but the UN peacekeepers don't have a lot of good PR at the moment.

Of course, with or without the U.S. Afghanistan will continue to be largely ungovernable, just as it has been since at least the late 80's.

[ElectionsGuy]

Thank you Obama for ending the wars! lmao

His hands are essentially tied. The U.S. can't just go around invading places and withdrawing before they've finished the job, that's just bad international relations. If I was an optimist, I'd say something like "can't the U.S. Transition to a UN peacekeeper based mission?" but the UN peacekeepers don't have a lot of good PR at the moment.

Of course, with or without the U.S. Afghanistan will continue to be largely ungovernable, just as it has been since at least the late 80's.

I was mocking some of our Obama hacks, that's it. I recognize the difficulties of pulling out, and I think we should've all seen this months away.

[ProgressiveCanadian]

Ugh why...

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Thank you Obama for ending the wars! lmao

And closing GITMO.......

[Torie]

Ugh why...

Because of the perceived consequences of not doing so. When you have two really bad options, pick the least bad. Also, I think the military was close to revolting here as it were, and the brass going to Congress testifying what they think will happen after the pull out, along with much of the current and former foreign policy establishment.

[The Last Northerner]

Not suprising (what do you expect from Obama?) but at the same time I guess it's better this than sending those troops to another country.