On our sister blog Battleland, TIME Pentagon correspondent Mark Thompson has a bracing take on the drawdown strategy for Afghanistan that President Obama articulated Wednesday night. As Mark writes:
Obama’s decision simply locks into place a U.S. drawdown that may doom all that has been achieved in Afghanistan over the past decade. Military success is only the first step in a process designed to make Afghanistan a cogent country able to keep terrorists at bay. The more important skill – growing Afghanistan so it can shrug off terrorism – continues to elude the U.S.
Read the full piece here.