This morning as you’re sipping on your coffee, you can see the overnight results for President Obama’s withdrawal speech on Afghanistan.
This morning NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has told reporters today that one-third of NATO forces will withdraw from Afghanistan by next year. In Paris President Nicholas Sarkozy said France would begin a “progressive withdrawal” from Afghanistan.
Everyone is rushing for the exits. The President was warned this could happen if it looked like America was about to cut and run.
In fact over the last few weeks during his worldwide farewell tour, Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned that the worse thing to happen is for NATO to “rush to the exits” in Afghanistan. This, he said, would jeopardize military progress.
Echoing a similar sentiment is anti-insurgency expert Brian Jenkins, now at the Rand Corporation. “If we signal that we are just getting out, then it does risk a stampede for the exits,”he told AFP.
Well the stampede has begun.
Yes Mr. President, words do have consequences.
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