About that withdrawal date.

I am about as certain as I can be that Karzai, the Taliban, the Pakistan military and just about everyone else in the region expected all along that the insurgency would outlast the occupation. If Obama had insisted, Bush-Cheney style, that we would stay as long it takes everyone over there would have dismissed it as chest-thumping bluster. Only our domestic warhawks could possibly talk themselves into actually believing such a thing. No US President could deliver on such a promise. His time in office is limited as is the patience of the American public. Under the circumstances, Obama was wise to use a target date, (not actually a promise), for withdrawal as a spur for Afghan reform, It probably won't work, but there is little else to even try.