This is a very difficult question.

In retrospect the war in Afghanistan seems to be a more important war than the Iraq campaign.

First of all, it seems evident that the US has run into the same kind of issues the Soviet Union did in their Afghan campaign. Every victory on the ground seems to be very short lived. The enemy is using the territory effectively to engage in guerrilla type combat. This is bad news indeed. This strategy has been effective before, and is working again.

The exit strategy used by the Soviet Union, which was to just get out as fast and as 'honorable' as possible is part of the problem in the region today. Leaving a strong Taliban will be a huge threat and is really not an option the way I see it.

If I was the president I would probably look to the experience of the Red Army as they faced much the same problems. The message from the generals leading that campaign was eerily familiar: This war is winnable, but only if we get more troops on the ground.

I think that the only option for the President is to continue the withdrawal from Iraq and step up the war efforts in Afghanistan. I would also step up the efforts to increase the international support of the campaign. After the disastrous handling of the Iraq war internationally, support for the US efforts have suffered. This sentiment is starting to wear off though, and especially from European allies it should be possible to enlist a more wholehearted response in Afghanistan.

The trouble with answering this, is I am not the president, so I have not seen ALL of the information. As we have already seen, Obama said he was going to pull out the troops from Afghanistan & Iraq once elected. However, once in office, he saw more detailed information than was publicly available, and sent more in.

All that aside, If we leave before Afghanistan is stable, with support, they will go into even more chaos. We committed to being there and helping. We are still able to help. We must stay there to help, or until their leaders, or vast majority of their citizens, no longer want us there. Then, we leave overnight.

The only exception to this would be, if we needed our troops on our own soil, to defend it from invaders.

I'm sure the President is far better informed about the situation than I am, and if he makes a different decision than I would, he'll more likely be right than me.

That said, based on what I do know....

It looks like it has to be a really bad idea to leave with the job half-done. What do people think will happen if we do that? That the place will magically have peace and prosperity? That it'll be chaos, but not our problem, because surely no-one based there will come bother us again?

I don't really see an alternative to doing whatever it takes to bring long-term stability to the region, and it looks like the military think that'll take a lot more time and a lot more troops.

If anyone's got a better plan that can actually work then fine.

Otherwise it's like a cancer patient saying "Hey, the chemo is so unpleasant, I've had enough... let's just stop now, and see what happens".

There is no doubt that this is both a losing battle. Without sending thousands and thousands of our fighting men and women. Massive Air Strikes and Billions if not Trillions of dollars. The Russians battled them for years and gave up. It is one of if not the most rugged terrains in the world. They enemy has the High Ground. I would pull every troop out and bring them home. This is a losing battle. There is not a retreat and surrender just a different way of doing things. No sense in putting these American Soldiers at risk. Learn from History try not to REPEAT IT. Which is what it looks like we are doing. #afghanistan

Leave now! This war is just a continuation of the invisible cold war that never ended, it's a proxy war between Russia and the US for control of more natural resources, it has nothing to do with the people who happen to inhabit an area where the natural resources we want are located, it could have been any country. We have been there for so many years without any progress, obviously our intention was not to fix the peoples social and political problems, it was to stay as long as we can and not let russia pilfer the natural resources before we could. Once we found Iraq, we forgot about Afghanistan since there was much more oil to exploit in that area, now we are refocusing on Afghanistan. If we were not in these countries provoking these people, the terrorism would certainly lessen. As long as we are there, there is a reason to train more "terrorist" army's to fight us. War has never solved any problem in the history of the world, it has only gone to oppress the people who live in the country affected. We don't care to understand people of other cultures, faiths, or political views. With the money being spent on afganistan, every single person in the US could have free health care....or with the money bieng spent currently every single child could have a full four years of free education....like most of the rest of europe..somehow they find the money to offer free health care and higher education to everyone..hmm maybe it's because they don't spend all the tax dollars on multi trillion dolar wars, every gets all mad when we say that health care is going ot cost a lot of money....it is nothing compared to the money we've spent on needless wars.... rather than training our people to fight we should be training them to be smart and healthy. There is a reason the united states consistently places last in education. We once were a smart nation, we need to refocus on education and health. We have an obligation to help fund education in other countries, when people are educated and healthy they do not get into wars, poverty causes wars, poverty is caused by lack of education healthcare and having your natural resources controlled by other countries. We need to pull out now, too many people have suffered. Yes even though we may not agree with the otherside's religious views, they suffer as well, and all human suffering (even your enemies) is a tragedy.

I am not the President and do not have the info he has but I would say get out!
Get out and let them be.
Let them have there own battles, mind our own business. Both in Afghanistan and Iraq. Enough with the world police idea where we try to instill our beliefs on others.
If they bring a battle to us then by all means terminate them with every means avaliable, but let's start working on us not everyone else.
We have our own problems that need to be dealt with here at home.
I guess I am strange when it comes to American lives being lost for a cause not our own. How many is too many? In my belief 1.

If i were in Afganistan i would leave now because it seems as if things are getting worst and worst. Which is pretty awful.

If I were President I would bring all troops home from everywhere, immediately... the nations we occupy do not want our presence, and it's a waste of federal funds due to the fact that with or without our presence there will be fighting there. I say we bring our troops home, let the sects in whatever countries do their thing. they've been killing each other for a millennium, why do we now feel like it's our problem? they'll either sort it out or kill each other off. problem solved... with our economy in the shape it's in we really need all of the work force and people that can stimulate the economy by spending money here being here.....