Sparring Opinions: Withdrawal from Afghanistan?

Conservative Washington Post columnist George Will shocked Washington media observers today with a column arguing for the United States to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. Will's prescription comes as the top U.S. commander in the country calls for an overhaul in military strategy and the Obama Administration begins a more than threefold increase of U.S. forces.

In this week's Sparring Opinions we're comparing George Will's column with an op-ed by liberal blogger and author Matthew Yglesias.

Will, an early proponent of the war in Afghanistan, wrote in the Washington Post that troop deaths, the inability to eradicate the Taliban and other issues necessitated a reversal of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan:

"forces should be substantially reduced to serve a comprehensively revised policy: America should do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, airstrikes and small, potent Special Forces units, concentrating on the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, a nation that actually matters."

Yglesias, writing for the Daily Beast, argued the Obama Administration should "turn the policy trajectory around" in Afghanistan before the debate over whether to withdraw becomes too polarized. For now, he said, Obama is safe, but he risks "push[ing] liberals into the antiwar camp":

"Obama has ... a pretty open grace period in which complaints from the left about his Afghanistan policy will remain fairly marginal. In principle, the administration could take advantage of that opportunity to try to shift our approach to that country in a more sustainable direction—an essentially defensive mission aimed at ensuring the Afghan government is strong enough to avoid a Taliban takeover of the country, hoping that would prevent the re-emergence of the openly operating terrorist training camps of the pre-9/11 era."

Which of these opinions do you find most convincing? Do they both miss the mark? Weigh in on these two controversial pieces by adding your review:

• Time for the U.S. to get out of Afghanistan - Washington Post

• Bogging down in Kabul - Daily Beast

-- Derek Hawkins