Holding the Gains

Hearing the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff talking on ABC's morning show for Memorial Day, one worries if America is being led by those who refuse to take off their rose-colored glasses. With eighty thousand US troops still in country, Afghanistan remains a tinderbox that could still fall back into the hands of the Taliban, particularly if American troops withdraw precipitously. A schedule for our forces exit from a conflict zone can never be set in stone and really should never be published as it only tells our enemies to harass us as we are departing to claim credit for chasing the last superpower away or simply allows adversaries to keep their powder dry until the US military leaves. We do not want all our treasure spent and more important, our blood sacrifice, to have gone for nothing.