then, if they re doomed to failure, they ir base within th jihadist community is deteriorating, why do we need to do that if they re going to self-destruct anyway? we need to help that process along. their ideology is not is doomed but they could go on for a century. they were doing pretty well in afghanistan before 9/11. they were attracting thousands of recruits from around the world. we need to prevent that. it s a countersanctuary strategy that we re engaged? and you don t think we need to get out of afghanistan anytime soon i think the biggest underreported story of this year is president obama s decision to stay in afghanistan to december 2014. imagine if a republican president said we re going to be substantially in afghanistan for another four years. the liberal side of the democratic party would be going nuts. it doesn t fit with the na narrative about obama.