The Patriot Post® · Delaying Withdrawal From Afghanistan

As the Iranian deal nears, and Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya descend into chaos – all products of Barack Obama’s foreign policy malfeasance – the U.S. reached an agreement with Afghanistan to leave 9,800 American troops in that nation through 2015. Given Obama’s disastrous pullout from Iraq, maybe he learned his lesson. Or maybe not. Obama insisted his plan to reduce U.S. troops presence to 1,000 by the end of his term is still in place: “The date for us to have completed our drawdown will not change.” During the press conference, Obama errantly referred to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani as “President Karzai” – the name of Ghani’s reviled predecessor. Ghani, on the other hand, has worked to improve relations between the two countries, and pleaded for a troop deployment extension. It’s an improvement to see Obama modify his strategy so, as he put it, “we don’t have to go back,” but that rhetoric aside he seems bullheadedly determined to leave Afghanistan to the Taliban after U.S. withdrawal. What’s one more failed state on his résumé? More…