Mission accomplished? The U.S. and NATO have “formally” ended the war in Afghanistan:
After 13 years and 2,224 U.S. troop deaths, America formally ends the war in Afghanistan – http://t.co/qXmXAUsF2i pic.twitter.com/3MfYYs0CYL
— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 28, 2014
And President Obama took some time out of his busy vacation in Hawaii to … oh, who are we kidding. The White House released a statement. For real:
"Thanks to the extraordinary sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending" pic.twitter.com/0nNdyMZzDJ
— White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) December 28, 2014
The war wasn’t won, but has ended with a “responsible conclusion.”
Full text here.
However, the president’s “responsible conclusion” really isn’t so concluded:
Unlike WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, we are leaving behind more troops in #Afghanistan (11k) than we deployed at start of war
— Rajiv Chandrasekaran (@rajivscribe) December 28, 2014
And this question from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Salena Zito needs to be answered:
So asking for a friend obviously but anyone tell Taliban & other assorted bad guys or eventual ISIS types that US ended Afghanistan war?
— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) December 28, 2014
Exactly (the not so much part) @joshrogin: U.S. and NATO Formally End War in Afghanistan http://t.co/lkyORE4ghl (Taliban not so much)
— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) December 28, 2014
Yep. Just because the president says the combat mission is over doesn’t make it so.
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