Obama Promises Afghanistan Troop Withdrawal -- for Political Reasons? (ContributorNetwork)

President Barack Obama spoke to the American people Thursday evening, a short speech that was covered by the major networks, announcing a drawdown plan to withdraw 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year and all 33,000 "surge" troops by September 2012. The move will see American troop levels fall to 70,000, still a far cry from ending American involvement in Afghanistan, which was one of Senator Barack Obama's campaign promises. Four years later, is the President simply shuffling chess pieces in a political game in order to win the next election?

Cynical though it may seem, the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan to "pre-surge" strength does not signify any great shift in American involvement in the war-torn country and only seems to be a political ploy to keep the President's electoral base, many of whom voted for him partially due to his promises on removing troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, mollified. The drawdown simply returns troop strength to the levels that existed prior to President Obama's West Point announcement of sending in more troops in 2009.

Post-September 2012? The President said that American troop reductions will continue at a "steady pace" until 2014, when Afghan security forces can take over "the lead" in their own military affairs.

It cannot help but be noticed that the last of the "surge" troops will be leaving Afghanistan just over a month prior to the national election in November.

But what has a decade in the "Graveyard of Empires" done for the United States. According to CNN's Anderson Cooper, not a lot.

Cooper detailed after Obama's speech the sad conditions of the American situation in Afghanistan, even though billions of American taxpayer dollars have been spent in military, economic, and humanitarian aid. The war costs $2 billion per month to maintain, while another $300 million is spent in economic aid per month. At the same time, Cooper exhibited a map of provincial control of Afghanistan, which clearly indicated that the American military, its coalition allies, and its Afghan allies only control three small provinces around Kabul, the Afghan capital. The Taliban, which the United States and coalition forces routed in 2001, have slowly retaken and reestablished control in many Afghan provinces, mostly in the western part of the country. They also maintain a presence in most provinces throughout the country.

But Americans are tired of the foreign war. A recent Pew Research Poll noted that the trend in polls for the past couple years has resulted in 56 percent of Americans calling for American troops to be brought home as soon as possible. Only 39 percent believe they should stay until the country is stabilized, which has become a relative term associated with politics, agendas, and whoever is talking at the moment. But the most dramatic shift in public sentiment came after the death of Osama bin Laden.

Succinctly, many Americans feel that the U. S. mission in Afghanistan -- the capture or death of Osama bin Laden and the limiting of al Qaeda's base of operations -- is over. The exorbitant cost of the war, coupled with its sister conflict in Iraq, has become a tremendous drain on the American economy.

That the U. S. and coalition forces are also seen as occupiers has made the situation, from nearly every perspective, basically untenable.

But grumbling from the Left and the impending national election may have caused President Obama to move toward at least appearing to begin a withdrawal, revealing that he at least has a plan for getting American troops out of a military and diplomatic situation that seems altogether rather hopeless. With liberals and supporters noting that several high-profile promises have not been kept (Guantanamo is still open; "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is still in effect), a mollification of his base of support might have been seen as imperative. Not that liberals would be tempted to vote for a conservative (although they might), there is the chance that they may decline to vote at all, thus removing their support. In a close election, which 2012 portends to be, every vote lost could potentially be costly.

President Obama and his advisers know all of this. That the speech announcing the withdrawals came before any major campaigning has been done by the President's potential 2012 GOP rivals almost certainly removes the Afghan war as a significant campaign weapon.

Still, the human cost of the war has been tragic and a withdrawal will be seen by many as long overdue. To date, over 1,600 Americans have been killed -- with nearly another 1,000 coalition forces -- in Afghanistan.

The withdrawal begins in July.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110623/us_ac/8689285_obama_promises_afghanistan_troop_withdrawal__for_political_reasons

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