"Progress in Afghanistan, with caveats" by David Ignatius

David Ignatius's Original Article

Claim: "President Obama says that the measure of success in Afghanistan is that he can stick to his schedule and begin withdrawing U.S. troops and transferring responsibility to the Afghans next July. That part still sounds like wishful thinking, given the mixed picture. There's progress, but as the president rightly said, it's still very frail."


Concession: "Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cautioned that success 'isn't going to happen overnight.' But the fact that he can even visit a base that a few months ago was under regular mortar fire tells you that something has changed...Violence is down."


Ignatius mentions several topics to support his claim. 

• The people of Afghanistan are unsure of the new power struggle. They don't trust the American troops or the Afghan government. 
• People are afraid once the American soldiers leave, the Taliban will just return.
• "The Afghan government presence has been corrupt or nonexistent."
• "As a State Department official here puts it, Zhari has "broken politics" - a description that sadly fits most of the country under the presidency of Hamid Karzai."
• "The local power brokers, such as Kandahar kingpin Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president's half-brother, were corrupt and incompetent."
• "And the Afghan army, which is supposed to take over from U.S. forces, is still shaky, operating at only about half its authorized strength...'Our [local] governor needs a complete staff,' says Lt. Col. James Fullwood, who commands the Marines in the area surrounding Marja."

I agree that the situation is still very fragile because there are still many issues within Afghanistan that have yet to be resolved, and we should not pull out troops until the time is right. If we remove the troops too soon, then all the good that has been done would just be destroyed since the country would not be able to fully support itself.