Karzai, in a statement from his office after meeting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, said as a result of the weekend massacre, "international security forces have to be taken out of Afghan village outposts and return to (larger) bases".
Interesting. I wonder if Panetta broke the news to Karzai that we are already pulling back from the countryside, as I fear.
Karzai needs us to help him fight the Taliban. But if we are pulling back from combat, Karzai has little to gain and much to lose by urging us to stay in the fight. So why not demand we pull back and at least look confident?
I just don't trust the Obama administraton to do the right thing when it comes to defending our country except when doing the right thing abroad coincides with their own domestic political calculations. Even the "good" "real war" against terrorism is optional for this crowd.
UPDATE: Without diminishing the responsibility of the soldier who is alleged to have massacred 16 Afghan civilians, when troop morale declines, discipline suffers and troops are more likely to commit atrocities. If the Obama adminsitration has already decided that we will not fight to win and will only try to hide that decision from our public until after this year's election to avoid the image of retreating, brace yourself for more atrocities. Words have meaning, I'm told. And our troops don't think that they fight for victory anymore.
