""I don't follow your example about Iraq, Don. When did we pull out of Iraq after an initial military occupation of the country and the setting up of a client regime there? I don't recall that ever happening. We are still very much in Iraq, and we have a client regime there, just as in Afghanistan.""

Bad memory LH? I'll refresh it for you.

In the first Gulf war, there were thousands of disaffected Iraqis, who were eager, and were actively encouraged by the USA and Britain, to rise up as an anti Saddam Hussein resistance.

They were the people who would have provided the stability for a fairly swift withdrawal of our troops, had we finished the job. The UN wimped out, declared the war won, and ordered the troops out.

Saddam slaughtered all those Iraqis, and carried on as before. In the second fracas, there were very few who welcomed the Coalition. Those who might have were alldead, and it was our fault.

If the Coalition pulls the troops before the pro West Afghans are capable of governing, and maintaining order, then the same thing will happen again.

Withdrawal has to be geared to run alongside of improving the capabilities of the Afghan military, and police.

Obama is right not to order a premature withdrawal.

We should not have been there in the first place, but now that we are, we have to keep faith with those who need our support.

Don T.