U.S. Army Capt. Joe Pazcoguin, center, talks with 1st Lt. Austin Cattle, right, and 1st Lt. Mitchell Creel during a clearance operation in western Kandahar, Afghanistan, Feb. 1, 2012. Pazcoguin is the commander of the 4th Infantry Division's Company B, 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team. Cattle is assigned to Company B and Creel is assigned to the 530th Engineer Company. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Seth BarhamAfghanistan: Moving Toward A Distant Endgame -- George Friedman, Real Clear World/Stratfor
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta suggested last week that the United States could wrap up combat operations in Afghanistan by the end of 2013, well before the longstanding 2014 deadline when full control is to be ceded to Kabul. Troops would remain in Afghanistan until 2014, as agreed upon at the 2010 Lisbon Summit, and would be engaged in two roles until at least 2014 and perhaps even later. One role would be continuing the training of Afghan security forces. The other would involve special operations troops carrying out capture or kill operations against high-value targets.
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My Comment: A sobering analysis on the state of Afghanistan today, and probably the direction that Afghanistan will be taking from now till 2015 (and maybe beyond).