Les Gelb wants us out of Afghanistan by the beginning of Obama's second term, if he wins one. With the killing of bin Laden, the stalemate within Afghanistan, and the impossibility of trusting the Pakistanis, the logic is pretty sound. Money quote:
The U.S. beef is not with the Taliban. It was over their hosting al Qaeda, and now there is little to host. If the Taliban are prepared to restrict their fight to Afghanistan, stopping them from regaining power inside their own country is most certainly not vital to the United States…
Then there's Pakistan. Presidents Bush and Obama have both argued that Afghanistan's fate would have a profound bearing on Pakistan's. But that argument has exploded. As circumstances have improved recently in Afghanistan, they have deteriorated in Pakistan. The fate of Pakistan, which has a powerful army and five times more people than Afghanistan, rests almost entirely in its own hands.
If Obama pledged that his second term will see an end to US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, I wouldn't bet on the GOP finding the will to oppose him.
The Dish 