One only has to read the Pentagon's progress report on the Afghanistan war effort released last Monday to understand how pointless it is to keep 68,000 American troops there any longer. The mounting evidence makes it clear that they should be pulled out as soon as it can be done safely, instead of waiting until the end of 2014, the date set by the United States and NATO.
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Yet the White House is now signaling that the decision on how quickly they will come home will not be made before next year.
The United States has spent a decade and $39 billion to recruit, train and equip a 350,000-member Afghan security force, including the army and police, that is supposed to defend the country when the Americans leave. President George W. Bush gave the effort short shrift when he shifted focus to Iraq. But even after President Obama's considerable investment, the Pentagon says that only one of the Afghan National Army's 23 brigades is able to operate independently, without air or other military support from the United States and NATO.
Although the report said Afghan forces are "increasingly taking over responsibility for securing Afghanistan," that doesn't mean keeping troops there will do anything but delay the inevitable. According to the American timetable, the Afghans are supposed to lead all operations by June 2013, just six months away. Even getting them ready to take over by the end of 2014 will be a challenge, a Pentagon official said at a briefing.
The problems are deep rooted, and unlikely to be solved in the next half-year. Most recruits are illiterate and have to be taught to read, in addition to martial skills. The units still depend heavily on the Americans for critical components of modern warfare — air power, communications, intelligence gathering, logistics and leadership. A Congressional study issued in September said that 20 percent of the troops are still deserting the army, and units typically are at only half their authorized strength. Problems with the police, where corruption is rampant, are worse.
The additional "surge" of 33,000 American troops in 2009 to drive the Taliban from their southern stronghold to the negotiating table weakened the extremists. But they remain "adaptive and determined" and able to conduct "isolated high-profile attacks," the report said. Negotiations have gotten nowhere.
Meanwhile, the government of President Hamid Karzai is rife with corruption and unable to deliver basic services to its people. There is also a lack of coordination between Kabul and the provinces and an uneven distribution of power among the judicial, legislative and executive branches, the report said.
The United States has made mistakes in Afghanistan. but it has also afforded the Afghans a chance to build a better state. Commitments by the Obama administration and European allies to provide billions of dollars to support the security forces and finance economic development projects should be kept as long as they seem useful. But Mr. Obama should overrule any plan from the military commanders to keep most of the 68,000 troops there through 2014.
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