Why Obama's Afghan policy might just work

By Rory Stewart,
Cool poker-players, we are tempted to believe, only raise or fold: they only increase their bet or leave the game. Calling, making the minimum bet to stay, suggests that you can't calculate the odds or face losing the pot, and that the other players are intimidating you. Calling is for children. Real men and women don't want to call in Afghanistan: they want to dramatically increase troops and expenditure, defeat the Taliban, and leave. Or they just want to leave. Both the disciples of the surge and the apostles of withdrawal found some satisfaction in one passage in President Obama's speech at West Point on Dec 1:
Left, a leg up for the Afghans