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Paul Eaton Quoted in Washington Examiner on Afghan Strategy

Experts argue Iraq woes should lead to new strategy in Afghanistan

By Susan Crabtree 

August 14, 2014 

In light of Iraq‘s current problems, some national security experts thinkPresident Obama should rethink his exit strategy in Afghanistan.

Moderate voices in the national security community have begun to urge President Obama to reconsider imposing a firm draw-down timeline in Afghanistan after the U.S. has been forced to re-engage in Iraq in efforts to to stop the Islamic State and prevent genocide.

Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, a 30-year Army veteran who served in Iraq, Bosnia and Somalia and is now a senior adviser at the left-of-center National Security Network, said the conditions on the ground should determine our draw-down levels over the next two years not an arbitrary timetable.

“I see it as conditions-based, and that’s how we have operated in other parts of the world,” he said. “If things become more and more peaceful and the levers of the Afghan government continue to function and the Taliban start integrating politically … then the [U.S.] requirements for the security function get reduced.”

 

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