End of U.S. combat role welcome in Afghanistan
A U.S. soldier walks near the scene of a suicide attack in Kandahar south of Kabul, Afghanistan. A teenage suicide bomber slipped inside police headquarters, detonating explosives and wounding one officer, the chief of the headquarters said. (Jan. 11, 2012) Credit: AP
Word that the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan will end in 2013, more than a year before all our troops there are slated to come home, is very welcome news.
The sooner the better.
What we set out to do in Afghanistan has been done. The Taliban has been removed from power. Al-Qaida has been dispersed and no longer has a base of operations there. Osama bin Laden is dead. Afghanistan has a democratically elected government, however wobbly and corrupt it may be. A large Afghan security force has been trained and equipped.
There is little more the U.S. military can reasonably be expected to accomplish. It's time to get our troops out of harm's way.
Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney slammed the Obama administration's decision to say publicly when the U.S. combat mission will transition to an advise-and-assist role. For Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to let our enemies know the timetable was "naive" and "misguided," Romney said. He's wrong.
Even without an official announcement, our intentions would be clear soon enough to anyone on the ground as the number of U.S. troops dwindles and Afghans assume more combat responsibility.
Ten years of war is enough, and there's no reason to keep the American public in the dark about when it will finally end.
