Obama's plan for a fighting retreat from Afghanistan

IBD Editorial:

President Obama has made a ringing commitment to fight the Taliban with one foot out the door. Seven years tops, he says, and we're out of there. If he's serious, we've already lost.

The president still seems to have trouble deciding what to do next in the country that he used to call the "central front" in the war on terror. But he's clear about one thing: the need for an exit strategy.

Not a victory strategy, mind you, but a strategy that will ensure an American departure, preferably before he leaves office.

Obama, interviewed this week by CNN, could not have been clearer on this point. "The American people will have a lot of clarity about what we're doing, how we're going to succeed, how much this thing is going to cost, what kind of burden does this place on our young men and women in uniform and, most importantly, what's the endgame on this thing. My preference would be not to hand off anything to the next president. One of the things I'd like is the next president to be able to come in and say, 'I've got a clean slate.'"

Ignore for a moment the dismissive language — "this thing" — to describe a war in which Americans are dying to defend their nation's vital interests and to keep Afghanistan from falling back into the hands of murderous fanatics. Let's just say it wasn't a Churchillian moment.

But his substantive point, that the "endgame" is the most important part of his strategy, was too clear to be blamed on carelessness, fatigue or whatever. That statement, if he really means it, is as good as waving the white flag.

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The best exit strategy is victory. Destroying and defeating the enemy makes it much easier to depart with something of value. It also eliminates the threat we went in there to stop to being with. What Obama and the Democrats are attempting is to cover their retreat with rhetoric.