Monday, June 6, 2011

Debating the Pace of Troop Withdrawals

Sometimes small debates about tactics can be made to sound like big philosophical disputes. The NY Times has a cover story about the debate within the Obama administration over how quickly to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan. One one side is outgoing Defense Secretary Gates, who wants the withdrawal to be slow, while on the other side are people who probably never liked the war and now, with bin Laden dead and a budget fight looming, want to get out as quickly as possible. It sounds rather dramatic until you look at the numbers actually involved: 3,000 out next month? 10,000? Complete exit by July 2013, or December 2014?

How about we just leave now?

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