According to a report in tonight’s Christian Science Monitor, the July 2011 “drawdown” from Afghanistan, already disavowed and with many talking about removing a couple thousand troops just for appearance’s sake, may not even amount to that much.
Rather, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is taking the language of “transition” quite literally and suggests that instead of having any troops leave, he may just have them shuffle about the country, moving a few from one province to another, and call that good enough.
It is hardly surprising that it has come to this, really, as Gen. David Petraeus and other officials have been downplaying the idea of removing troops for months, and he is also said to be pushing for another escalation of at least 2,000 additional troops.
But the selling of the December escalation to the American public was largely conditioned on this illusory July 2011 drawdown. It seems the administration may have some questions to answer if all that happens is a shuffling of troops.
