2300 US Soldiers Headed To Afghanistan This Winter

It was well documented what would happen if we withdrew to early, the power vacuum would be filled and the one we trained wasn't strong enough to fill it. You can't half ass a war.

You're spot on. They can afford to wait for us to leave by one method or another, and they will. All the enemy has to do is outlast us and hit us occasionally using guerilla tactics. It's not called the Graveyard of Empires for nothing, brother.

In November of 2001, my battalion commander held a formation. During that formation he informed us that we were deploying to Afghanistan sometime in 2002. He also informed us that this would be a long war, and that we are looking at an effort that would take at least 15 to twenty years.

So from the early days of the war, people have accurately predicted this was going to be a long one. In fact the only people who I have ever met who said that Afghanistan was going to be a brief campaign were either mother breathers, or poor students of military history. Why we drew down in Afghanistan when we were finally gaining momentum forward is beyond me. Our legacy there will be one of leaving the job half finished and leaving an Afghan Army ill prepared to stand on its own.