After spending billions and maybe even trillions of U.S. tax dollars, costing the lives of hundreds of American service members, and basically handing the entire region to Islamic extremists, Barack Obama has announced that there is effectively no new plan in Afghanistan and that the 16-year-long war will be handed off the the next president.
It was only last December that the Department of Defense, in the report to Congress, warned that ISIS was aggressively expanding into Afghanistan. In a matter of a few months, ISIS has claimed almost as much territory as the U.S. held from 2003 to 2011.
In March of 2016, we learned that the U.S. Defense Department had donated roughly $858 million worth of real property to the Afghan government over the last five years.
Nearly a month later, Taliban groups in Afghanistan announced their annual warm-weather fighting season had begun and promised more "large-scale attacks" in their 15th year combating the United States.
In June, the Taliban had re-taken key areas such as the Helmand Province, an area that the U.S. literally spent billions of dollars on capturing.
In conclusion, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and ISIS are all waiting for the moment when U.S. forces exit the region. The indecisiveness of the Obama administration is the burden that awaits the next man or woman to hold the Oval Office.
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