Abstract:
Increasing war weariness on the part of the American public and in Congress has madeit politically possible for President Obama to move away from the costly civil-militarycounterinsurgency strategy, without needing to fear criticism from the Republicans.The creeping transition to what is known as a counterterrorism strategy widens thescope for troop reduction. Militarily, this strategy hardly entails much more than theelimination of as many insurgents as possible by kill or capture operations - whetherin the hope of forcing the opponent's leaders to negotiate, or in the expectation thatthis will put stronger Afghan security forces in a better position to manage the remainingdanger. As part of this counterterrorism strategy, the US would like to maintain amilitary presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014