It's their country, not ours. In increasingly clear language, Afghans are telling us to leave. We should listen and oblige.
This is supposed to be a period of transition from U.S. occupation to Afghan government control. But what do we expect to accomplish between now and 2014, when our troops are supposed to come home? We can be confident that the Afghan government will still be reckless and corrupt. We can anticipate that the Afghan military will still lack personnel, equipment and training. We can be absolutely certain that the Taliban insurgents will still constitute a threat, because -- and this is what gung-ho advocates of the war fail to grasp -- they live there. To them, Afghanistan is not a battlefield but a home.
Public opinion in this country is increasingly fed up with the war. A new Washington Post poll shows that 60 percent of Americans believe the war has not been worth the blood and treasure we've expended. Fifty-five percent of those polled believe most Afghans are opposed to what we are trying to accomplish in their country, and 54 percent say we should withdraw our troops even before the Afghan army is trained to be "self-sufficient."
