Who is going to guard the opium plantations and the oil/gas pipelines they are building through Afghanistan? Perhaps Israel should fill the void instead of poor ordinary Westerners dying for Corporate greed.

The reason why they are leaving Afghanistan is that the USA needs these forces to attack Lybia,Syria and Iran for it's oil.It is called Corporate Imperialism.Zibigniew Brezezinski in his book' The Grand Chessboard'in 1996."What we need is a truely massive and widely perceived direct external threat." That threat was their contrived terrorism."We need a new Pearl harbour" echoed by the elites in the USA before 911.

The reality is the the USA simply cannot afford the war in
Afghanistan anymore. Too many Afghans are treating the whole thing
as an enormous cash cow to be milked. Obama gave the Petreuos option
a go, we'll see if it worked or not.

Afghans have to stand on their own two feet, as one time or another.
I don't think that Obama is being unreasonable. Main thing is
America can retain an interest and a few drones can achieve a huge
amount, far more then tens of thousands of troops on the ground.

If the people of Afghanistan are unwilling to help themelves and
their country, the West cannot do it for them forever.
America is broke, get used to it.

Ciaran, while I agree with almost everything you have written here, I think you have one thing wrong.

I don't think anything Obama decides to do in Afghanistan will have any effect on his standing in history.

He has all ready made enough stupid decisions, & put enough future catastrophes in train, that any effect of his Afghanistan policies will be a be very minor postscript in the scheme of things.

To put your just to clarify the context of your "quote" Arjay. ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI said:

"Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multicultural
society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign
policy issues, except in the circumstances of a truly massive
and widely perceived direct external threat. Such a consensus generally
existed throughout World War II and even during the Cold
War. It was rooted, however, not only in deeply shared democratic
values, which the public sensed were being threatened, but also in
a cultural and ethnic affinity for the predominantly European victims
of hostile totalitarianisms."

Which by your logic means that they need this war so they can fight this war? If it is about resources, then why is the US still broke after apparently successfully invading Iraq for their oil? By this shouldn't the wars be making them a profit?

The United States Armed Forces have achieved a major victory. Al Qaeda is all but non existent in Afghanistan. The U.S. soldiers, airmen, marines, and Navy are the greatest fighting force in the history of the world, and with the support of brave coalition allies, the objective of extricating al Qaeda from Afghanistan has been achieved.

Whether or not the Kabul Government can maintain a standing army in the future, thus preventing a resurgence of the Afghani Taliban led by Mullah Omar and the Quetta Shura, it is very unlikely the latter will be invite Qaeda fighters back into their midst. It is more than likely that Mullah Omar regrets his reluctant invitation to Bin Laden and Zawahari to take refuge within Afghan borders. That reluctant invitation resulted in the attacks on the United States and the removal of Omar from the seat of power in Kabul and Kandahar and the occupation of Afghanistan by American and coalition forces.

The citizens of the United States owe much to our armed forces and it is incumbent upon the government and people of the U.S. to welcome our forces back home and to provide them with all necessary financial, medical psychological and spiritual support that they may and will require.

This is without doubt the silliest piece of rubbish I have ever read on the internet. This Arjay must be a rabid red pushing his Soviet era agenda, or very young school kid or a who knows absolutely nothing of the real world at all.