It is a shame President Obama is signaling retreat in Afghanistan. The Taliban are clearly feeling the pressure from coalition operations. How else to explain such desperate moves as sending a suicide bomber to attack a public hospital? The subsequent blast killed 25 civilians, mainly women and children. Or tricking an eight-year-old girl into becoming an unwitting suicide bomber?
These types of barbaric attacks are certain to alienate the population–as even the Taliban themselves have acknowledged in the past by issuing directives against causing needless civilian casualties. That the Taliban are reduced to such extremes shows how little luck they are having in actually fighting coalition troops and their Afghan allies. It is nothing short of a tragedy that at this moment, when the battle is finally going against the Taliban, Obama is providing them with what amounts to a reprieve.
