Obama's retreat from victory in Afghanistan

Con Coughlin:

Why doesn’t President Barack Obama just put us out of misery and run up the White flag in Afghanistan? Mr Obama might think it is jolly good politics to withdraw 33,000 US troops before next year’s presidential election but, whatever he says about the campaign moving in the right direction, there is little doubt he has dealt the mission’s prospects for success a mortal blow.

Talk to any military commander on either side of the Atlantic – as I frequently do – and they will tell you that they need two full fighting seasons, this summer and next, if the impact of the surge strategy Mr Obama authorised in late 2009 is to succeed.

But rather than allowing the strategy to run its course, Mr Obama has sabotaged the whole operation for his own, short-term political gain by insisting all the surge troops are withdrawn by the summer of 2012. In short the American president is jeoparding the entire mission to enhance his re-election prospects.

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The British media seems more willing to be critical of Obama's dangerous move. It will probably take the reversal on the battlefield to get the attention of US media.