woolfe9998
Lifer
- Apr 8, 2013
- 16,187
- 14,107
- 136
Checked some stats, and American troop levels in Afghanistan have gone like this:
2010, which was the height of Obama's "surge": 100,000
2017, when Obama left office: 8,400
2021, when Trump left office: 3,000
Similarly, American deaths there have declined from a high of 496 in 2010 to about 15-20 per year these past several years.
We aren't really doing the same thing, and certainly not in the same numbers, as we once were.
I think there is an obsession with which POTUS happens to be in office when the last American soldier leaves, but I view it more as a continuum of risk being constantly mitigated by steady drawdowns. So realistically speaking, it may not be the most important issue who pulls out the last few thousand troops.
That said, because people seem to credit whoever removes the last remnant as "the President who got us out" I suppose it will benefit him somewhat politically to do it. Assuming we don't get a terrorist attack sourced from that country before he leaves office, in which case it will backfire.
2010, which was the height of Obama's "surge": 100,000
2017, when Obama left office: 8,400
2021, when Trump left office: 3,000
Similarly, American deaths there have declined from a high of 496 in 2010 to about 15-20 per year these past several years.
We aren't really doing the same thing, and certainly not in the same numbers, as we once were.
I think there is an obsession with which POTUS happens to be in office when the last American soldier leaves, but I view it more as a continuum of risk being constantly mitigated by steady drawdowns. So realistically speaking, it may not be the most important issue who pulls out the last few thousand troops.
That said, because people seem to credit whoever removes the last remnant as "the President who got us out" I suppose it will benefit him somewhat politically to do it. Assuming we don't get a terrorist attack sourced from that country before he leaves office, in which case it will backfire.