U.S. SHOULD Be Mulling a “Zero Option”: Karzai’s Attitude Suggests Afghanistan Can Go It Alone Without U.S. Backing: He’s Wrong of Course, But Pulling U.S. Troops Out is Good Policy

I’m hoping that the situation that developed in Iraq which lead to the complete U.S. pullout of troops from that country also happens in Afghanistan.  President Karzai seems to going down that path too, which is very good news.  

The situation I speak of is the breakdown of talks over the Status of Forces Agreement (SoFA) in Iraq, which lead to President Obama pulling the plug on the Iraq War, one of his few foreign policy achievements.

President Karzai is unhappy that the U.S. is negotiating with the Taliban and has postponed SoFA negotiations between the U.S. and Afghanistan for post-2014.  I’m liking this development.

The reason why I like this is that Karzai’s attitude has been rude and disrespectful toward the U.S. and coalition forces for a while, especially since there have been a lot of Western causalities in Afghanistan on behalf of his government.  And he’s using the SoFA negotiations as a bargaining chip to manipulate the U.S. into doing things his way.

If Afghanistan is as strong as Karzai says it is and can do the job better than U.S. troops, then by all means, go with the zero option and pull all troops out…at the end of 2013, not 2014.

The U.S. military needs time to retool, rebuild and rest, and see to the needs of the troops who have been wounded, physically or mentally, and to prepare for the next global hotspot, wherever that may be.   We’ve spent far too much time and effort and national treasure on Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Other countries like North Korea and Iran have taken advantage of our forces being tied up in Afghanistan and Iraq for far too long.  While we’ve had two wars going on, they’ve thumbed their noses at us, instead of worrying if they were next.   And there’s both the perception that we have a weak President, and that the U.S. doesn’t attack countries with nuclear weapons, which has lead directly to North Korea openly developing nuclear weapons, and Iran doing the same thing much more quietly.

So, by all means, pull the troops out.  Then we’ll see if Karzai can back up his rhetoric with results.