The White House announced no plans to publicly mark the 10-year anniversary of the war in Afghanistan. The war signifies the most prolonged conflict the country has been engaged in since Vietnam. The lack of coverage on the milestone comes from the thinking that, barely a month after the 9/11 anniversary, Obama has already led a national reflection on the past decade.
The true milestone will come in 2014, the deadline Obama set for the withdrawal of most U.S. forces. Troops began withdrawing in July, with the promise of 33,000 home by next summer. That will leave almost 70,000 troops still in Afghanistan. A recent poll found that 6 in 10 Americans now say the United States should not be involved in Afghanistan.
