Dexter Filkins has his doubts about withdrawing from Afghanistan:
The country remains riddled with violence, and negotiations with the Taliban—a last-resort option—have led nowhere. It is not hard to imagine a repeat of the Afghan civil war, which engulfed the country after the withdrawal of the Soviet Union, and which ultimately gave rise to the Taliban. Bloodied but unbroken, the Taliban hardly seem like an army preparing to beg for peace. Their leaders greeted Obama’s words with a swift promise: “Our armed struggle will increase.”
Joshua Foust deconstructs his logic:
What [Filkins] seemingly cannot do, even now, is admit that the correct response to two years of a failed strategy is not to “tough it out,” as Michael O’Hanlon would put it, but to consolidate our losses and withdraw.
The Dish 