It now appears that — barring some truly exceptional circumstances — Barack Obama has made his last decision regarding Afghanistan as president of the United States. The current force of about 10,000 U.S. service members will remain through the end of 2016, when it will quickly draw down to a force of about 5,500. The next president will take office with a force in Kabul and relatively small detachments on the airfields at Bagram, Jalalabad and Kandahar.
It has not been a good year in Afghanistan. The fall of Kunduz has been very well documented, but even regular consumers of news may not have noticed the steady drumbeat of falling territories throughout the country. In the far southwest in Helmand, the Taliban appear to be closing in on the capital city of Lashkar Gah.
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