Is President Obama’s decision to follow through with plans to withdraw from Afghanistan just a misbegotten election-year ploy? According to columnist Andreas Ruesch of Switzerland’s Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Mr. Obama has sent the Taliban the wrong message at precisely the wrong time, apparently for strictly electoral purposes.
For Switzerland’s Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Andreas Ruesch writes in part:
The Taliban will have noticed that the president announced the withdrawal of all combat troops by 2014 – without making the withdrawal contingent on developments in Afghanistan. To the student warriors, this must seem like an invitation to persevere and keep their powder dry until the leadership in Kabul has lost its foreign protectors.
If the U.S. leadership’s decision is lacking in military rationale, its domestic political rationale is all too evident. The first major stage of troop withdrawals is to be completed by September, 2012. This doesn’t make much sense from a military standpoint, because the affected units will have to leave their positions during the so-called “combat season.” Politically, however, the timing seems almost ideal – just weeks before the presidential election, Obama will be able to celebrate the return of the troops. Already, the president seems ready to risk declaring the Afghanistan mission a success. ‘The light of secure peace can be seen in the distance,’ he promised listeners on Wednesday evening. Wishful thinking remains wishful thinking, even if it’s wrapped in beautiful words – and it might come back to roost with a vengeance.
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