Obama's decision overruled the advice of his military commanders and came with a declaration that the surge had succeeded and "the tide of war is receding" with the death of Osama Bin Laden, the apparent disarray of Al-Qaeda and the Taleban losing ground.
Several political observers in Washington said the president faces a lose-lose situation in Afghanistan: withdraw the troops and risk losing the many gains made during the long and costly war, or leave the troops there and face a political backlash at home that could cost him the presidency in the 2012 elections.
But Hussein Ibish, senior research fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine told Arab News that he agreed with the president.
"President Obama's speech on Afghanistan reflected the American consensus that the purpose of the US engagement in that country is largely completed. Very few pro-war voices remain, even among Republicans, and even John McCain speaks in terms of a troop drawdown," said Ibish.
"Trying to rule Afghanistan from afar is plainly a fool's errand. The bottom line for the United States should be that Afghanistan is not a threat to regional security or a base for international terrorists. Other than that, the Afghans both have to and will determine their own future without outside intervention. President Obama deserves considerable credit for wisely disregarding the advice of his military commanders and initiating a drawdown in Afghanistan, largely according to his own-existing timetable," said Ibish.
Although the president's military leaders quickly fell in line publicly with the president's decision, serious concern exists about whether the withdrawal will thwart military plans to shift troops to eastern Afghanistan next year to tackle the Taleban entry routes from Pakistan and clearing them out of the strongholds in the area.
Military experts here are publicly uttering what they say the generals cannot: The withdrawal's second phase comes at a bad time, threatening the success of the whole campaign.
"Putting a September 2012 expiration tag on the rest of the surge raises real concerns," Lt. Gen. David Barno told reporters. He retired from the army in 2006 after serving as the senior American commander in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005 and who now is a senior fellow at the Center for New American Security. "That's the middle of fighting season."
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, said that Obama's Afghan timetable was more aggressive than he and his senior commanders had been prepared to accept. But America's top military officer told the House Armed Services Committee that he was now fully able to "support the president's decisions."
At a Senate hearing Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confirmed that the administration's focus was snow shifting to a longer-term development and political reconciliation, including "very preliminary outreach to members of the Taleban." "This is not a pleasant business, but a necessary one," she said, "because history tells us that combination of military pressure, economic opportunity and an inclusive political and diplomatic process is the best way to end insurgencies."
While some Republicans are nervous about the possibility of precipitous drawdown that they said would threaten recent gains there, a number of prominent Democrats criticized the president for not bringing the troops home quickly enough.
"It has been the hope of many in Congress and across the country that the full drawdown of US forces would happen sooner than the president laid out — and we will continue to press for a better outcome," said Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, leading a chorus of disgruntled Democrats who took the president to task, albeit politely.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner warned Obama not to sacrifice the gains the US has made in Afghanistan, while Republican Sen. John McCain, Obama's rival in the 2008 presidential election, said the drawdown was too rash.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed the plan, but the Taleban, resurgent a decade after being toppled from power following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, dismissed the announcement and said only a full, immediate withdrawal of foreign forces could stop "pointless bloodshed".
