Through it all, the Taliban isn’t blinking. Indeed, Taliban leaders greeted President Obama’s announcement of the troop withdrawals by saying that Western governments “must salvage themselves from the protracted and pointless war in Afghanistan…. The Afghans should be granted control, choice of government and sovereignty of their country… If not…our sacred Jihad will intensify and forge ahead successfully even if one foreign soldier is present in our country….”
It seems time for America to reevaluate how it will relate to military challenges around the globe. The old saw that only boots on the ground can work has proved false and debilitating. Perhaps a mixture of reliance on the broad use of precision drone bombing accompanied by the old-fashioned carpet sort would get the attention of our adversaries without committing our troops. Afghanistan has demonstrated that current methods just can’t work when it comes to countering indigenous insurgencies.