"Come Home, America" Watch, Day 27

Michael Crowley wonders how candidate Obama's good war in Afghanistan became President Obama's big problem. Three second-tier reasons, he says: Afghanistan's corrupt election, poor leadership at the NSC, and Obama's fears of having his domestic agenda hobbled by another Vietnam. And then one big reason:

[U]ltimately, the real answer is that this is just a hard question. Obama will have to base his decision on a rough blend of hypotheses and guesstimates -- from whether a future "Talibanistan" would shelter al Qaeda to the threat al Qaeda currently poses to American security to what the different options mean for the stability of Pakistan. In war time is always of the urgency, but nothing is more urgent than making the best decision possible.