Late last month, President Obama gave a speech laying out his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan. “Even as there are dark days ahead in Afghanistan, the light of a secure peace can be seen in the distance. These long wars will come to a responsible end,” Obama said. Today is one of the first steps toward that “responsible end” of U.S. and NATO involvement in Afghanistan, as NATO troops hand power over to the Afghan National Army in Lashkar Gar, the capital of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.
Jeffrey Dressler, a senior research analyst at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, addresses whether the Afghan National Army is up to the challenge.