Losing Vietnam Was a Blueprint for Losing Afghanistan

On Monday, Oct. 21 the top American commander in Afghanistan, Army General Austin S. Miller, announced at a news conference in Kabul that 2,000 U.S. troops had been withdrawn from the country over the last year.  Some 12,000 to 13,000 remain of a force that numbered more than 100,000 in 2011.

By all accounts, the Trump administration is now fully committed to withdrawing U.S. forces from that war-ravaged nation, with or without an agreement with the Taliban. American and Afghan officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to New York Times reporters, have indicated that current plans call for further withdrawals down to 8,600 troops. Only the details and the timing remain to be worked out.

The American withdrawal bodes ill for the survival of the perennially corrupt and ineffective Kabul government that the United States, with some help from NATO, has attempted to construct and support over the last 18 years.

Read more at The Daily Beast.