President Obama has finally decided that the facts on the ground are such the United States needs to keep troops in Afghanistan, both to stop the Taliban, ISIS, et al, and to help the Afghani people, past January 20, 2017. One wonders how much better things might be in Afghanistan if the President had been willing to consider this possibility a little earlier, instead of setting, for so long, January 20, 2017 as a deadline for leaving regardless of what was happening on the ground.
According to the United Nations, the Taliban now controls more of Afghanistan than it has at any time since 2001. If we had not been so focused on getting out by January 20, 2017, might we have been able to help the Afghanis avoid this kind of situation? Unfortunately, we will never know.
At least, we are now staying to help. Maybe we have learned something from how we left Iraq.
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