Afghanistan: fractioned withdrawal??

[chuck]

What confuses me is that the war parties to not seem to talk to each other about withdrawal.

Good point. I suspect there is much private communication among the war parties and kept private for good reasons. Letting an adversary know what your withdrawal plans are is detrimental to any combat effort.

Here is an article that highlights some of the internal conflict that occurs when withdrawal plans are announced.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37657
McChrystal Told the Truth - By Rowan Scarborough

FTA:

The military is finally telling the unvarnished truth about President Obama's dysfunctional national security team.
[...snip...]
[There is] an ongoing dispute between the White House and its generals that shows why McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, had grown so frustrated.

The debate centers on when exactly troops will begin leaving Afghanistan. Every time a Pentagon figure, such as Gen. David Petraeus, the overall region commander, testified that Obama's July 2011 withdrawal date does not mean the U.S. is abandoning Afghanistan, there was a White House official saying nearly the opposite.

The result is a badly mangled message to Afghan troops and villagers who think America is going to leave them to the mercies of the Taliban, which shows no mercy. Thus, McChrystal's counter-insurgency strategy of winning over the population cannot possibly succeed as long as the White House undercuts it.