One of the deans of foreign policy who is assigned reading in every college course on the subject says
Obama and his fellow Democrats know full well that if the United States walks away from Afghanistan now, the Republicans will accuse them of capitulating to terrorism and undermining our security. And this charge will be leveled at them for decades to come, harming Democrats at the polls come election time. The Democrats have no intention of letting that happen.
The United States is in Afghanistan for the long haul. As was the case in Vietnam, more American soldiers and many more civilians are going to die in Afghanistan. And for no good reason.
But what if, just what if, the opposite is true, and Republicans are fixing to say "Republicans win their wars. Why can't Democrats win theirs? Bush won Iraq why can't Obama win Afghanistan?"
I know I know spare me the reality, Afghanistan is Bush's war too. We're talking about what's going to happen. Republicans don't care about reality.
The reality is Obama can more easily defend against what Mearshiemer is saying (ARTICLE HERE) than survive another bloody Vietnam. All Obama has to say is "This war should have been over by now but Bush blew it by ignoring the reconstruction. Now we have to play catch-up ball on that and assure these people we're not here to occupy them forever."
That would throw Republicans for a loop. Bush blew it? Uh YAA. You want to go there, right-wingers? You want to go there? Remember Tora Bora, when Delta Forces soldier "Dalton Fury" was asking for permission to take out bin Laden? It was even on 60 Minutes.
Fury told 60 Minutes that his men at one point had a firm fix on the cave in which bin Laden was hiding, and that he had relayed to his superiors an audacious plan to "get a drop on bin Laden from behind." Fury's plan was to come over the top of the steep mountain "with oxygen" in order to take bin Laden's position by surprise, but he says the plan was nixed. Fury stated: "Whether that was Central Command all the way up to the president of the United States, I'm not sure."
For more on Bush letting Bin Laden escape at Tora Bora go here.