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With the focus on the Ukraine and other issues, top U.S. commander in Afghanistan warned on Wednesday the country would quickly descend into chaos with a precipitous U.S. withdrawal at the end of this year.

U.S. Afghan Commander Gen. Joseph Dunford, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee basically in an empty room, testified that the Taliban would see this as a victory and would bring back the Al Qaeda, woman would suffer, and Afghan security forces would be unable to complete their training.

“A withdrawal in my mind means abandoning the people of Afghanistan, abandoning the endeavor that we’ve been on for the last decade, and then providing Al Qaeda the space to begin again to plan and conduct operations against the West,” Dunford said.

He said Al Qaeda in Afghanistan is currently “fighting for survival,” but that without continued pressure over the next few years, it would “physically reconstitute” while boosting recruitment, fundraising and morale. He warned Al Qaeda in Afghanistan could once again “establish preeminence in the region and become the vanguard for the Al Qaeda movement.”  

The biggest concern he had was leaving Afghan security forces unprepared and not quite ready to act independently on their own. Dunford remarked more training is needed with U.S. special operations units. 

“If we leave at the end of 2014, the Afghan security forces will begin to deteriorate,” Dunford warned. “The security environment will begin to deteriorate, and I think the only debate is the pace of that deterioration.”

 Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich, the committee’s chairman mentioned that a Gallup poll showed for the first time most Americans believed intervening into Afghanistan was mistake.

“I do not share that view,” Levin said in his opening statement. “More importantly, neither do the Afghan people.”

The president has been stymied in his efforts to have outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai sign a bilateral security agreement sidelining the administration for keeping more U.S. forces in the country.

Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a senior member of the Armed Service Committee, commented the lack of attention Afghanistan receives.

“One observation, the room is almost empty,” Graham said. “I remember when all these rows were full with people carrying bags and everybody was hanging on every word about Afghanistan.”

Last week Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., “the president has talked about Afghanistan only a handful of times during his presidency.”

Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who served under both former President Bush and President Obama commented in his book, “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War” that Obama really was not fully committed to his own strategy in Afghanistan.

The only time he mentioned Afghanistan was when it was in reference to troop increases or withdrawals.

Nobody is contemplating a permanent troop presence in Afghanistan, but precipitous withdrawal strategy would destabilize the region.  One only has to remember the last time the U.S. withdrew from the region.

The U.S. needs to effect and the president needs to articulate to the American people a coherent long term strategy for the region, without the guise of politics clouding U.S. strategy. [/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]