I am someone who would like to get out of Afghanistan yesterday, in terms of attempting to bring democracy or even stability to that medieval hellhole.
But today’s front-page story in the NYT* convinces me that we need to leave some troops. Without them, we can’t have our drone bases, which means we can’t reach Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan’s frontier region and we’ll have a much bigger challenge if (when?) there’s a nuclear weapons crisis in Pakistan.
OK, you’ve scared me enough. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has so far refused to sign the agreement for us to leave troops beyond the end of this year. Just wire the money he wants into his Swiss bank account and let’s be done with it.
“Afghan Exit Is Seen As Peril To Drone Mission,” David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt
Embattled Farmers 