President Obama on Sunday’s Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer reassured the nation as to his limits on commitment to the war in Afghanistan.
Having earlier announced 17,000 more troops and now an additional 4,000 to be sent over the next number of months, he made it clear that it was not an open ended commitment, and that a point might be reached of diminishing returns, which would then lead to a reassessment of the mission.
In so stating, Obama is letting the nation know that he has no intention of making the Afghan War another Vietnam quagmire. We can only hope that the mission will work out, but it is reassuring to know that Obama has learned from our history in Vietnam and will not continue to invest over time in Afghanistan IF the effort is failing and seems beyond retrieval.