Hard choices in Afghanistan for re-elected Obama
(AFP) – 13 hours ago
KABUL — As he celebrated re-election, US President Barack Obama spoke of his desire to "shape a peace" in his second term, but he faces huge challenges in Afghanistan, where he must end his country's longest war.
From the very early days of his presidency in 2009, Obama has learned the hard way that plans laid in Washington often crumble in the hard realities of the land known as the "Graveyard of Empires".
He came to power in the middle of an economic crisis with the intention of bringing American troops home from Afghanistan but ended up sending a "surge" of 33,000 extra soldiers to try to quell the Taliban.
Now these reinforcements have come home and the 100,000-strong NATO force, nearly 70,000 of whom are American, are preparing to follow suit by the end of 2014.
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