Tonight, President Obama told the American people that we would begin to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, largely sticking to the schedule that he spelled out in his December 2009 address at West Point. For those who missed it, the President announced that 10,000 troops would return from Afghanistan by the end of this year and that 23,000 more would return by September 2012, returning troop levels to those before 2009's “surge.” Like all presidential decisions, this one already has vocal critics: members of both parties are simultaneously decrying the strategy as being both too precipitous and too slow a withdrawal. Whatever its faults, though, Obama's decision will have repercussions far beyond the end of his presidency—and it may be the beginning of a new era in U.S. foreign policy.
