What matters isn’t how many troops Obama withdraws this year, or next. It’s how the drawdown supports Taliban peace talks, the only real ticket out of the war. ... if Obama’s Wednesday speech doesn’t explain how the drawdown supports a political strategy for ending the war, it’ll mean one thing: he has no idea how to get out of Afghanistan.

One also notes David Brooks' account of the failure of economic aid to assuage the "grudges, tribal dynamics and religious fanaticism" that fuel violence. Ackerman's earlier thoughts on political reconciliation with the Taliban: