Newswise — Barry Strauss, chair of the Department of History at Cornell University and an author of 11 books on military history, comments on the long-term implications of President Barak Obama’s plan for a substantial drawdown of American troops from Afghanistan.
Strauss says,
“President Obama has pitched the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan as a tactical decision but the real issue is strategic. The President argues that we can have our cake and eat it too: start bringing soldiers home and also keep Afghanistan as a terror-free ally as well.
“But wars aren’t won by troop withdrawals. By following the President’s course of action, we go down the road to losing Afghanistan. The Taliban will wait and strike as soon as we are weak enough. Then they will retake Afghanistan.
“The question is, does it matter?
“All empires over-extend themselves and then pull back. Sometimes they pay a price, as the Soviets did when they lost Afghanistan and then saw the collapse of communism at home. But the Romans withdrew from Germany after a humiliating defeat under Augustus – and the Roman Empire in the West went on to flourish for another four centuries.
“Which model fits the beginning of the American retreat from Afghanistan, Rome or the Soviets? That is the question.”
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