Can’t win for losin’…
Well, this certainly seems like good news:
The United States and NATO will seek to end their combat mission in Afghanistan next year and shift to a role of providing support and training to Afghan security forces, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Wednesday.U.S. military commanders had said in recent weeks they would begin a transition this year toward taking more of an advisory role as Afghanistan’s national army and police take greater responsibility for fighting the insurgency. But Panetta’s remarks were the first time the Obama administration has said it could foresee an end to regular U.S. and NATO combat operations by the second half of next year.
“Hopefully by mid to the latter part of 2013 we’ll be able to make a transition from a combat role to a training, advise and assist role,” he told reporters traveling with him to Brussels, where he is scheduled to attend NATO meetings this week.
Normally something like this would probably seen as a truly good sign, a major step forward after a decade of war. But, the ways things are in this country right now, I fully expect Republicans to clobber him for being weak on terror, risking our national security and not being a big enough warmonger. I also fully expect many on the left to clobber him for not doing it sooner and being too much of a warmonger.
I honestly don’t know why President Obama doesn’t just get up one day and say, “Screw it!” and quit.
He’s a bigger man than I.
