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Not anytime soon 

Barack Obama has announced that his nation will pull out 33, 000 of her surge troops by next September.  Earlier in the week,  America admitted to holding talks with the Taliban. Both events can be seen as a logical conclusion to the American President’s address earlier this month in which he said that the man responsible for the greatest mass murder on his country’s soil was now dead. On the face of it, the logical conclusion of all this would a complete American pullout of Afghanistan. History has shown, however,  that where Great Powers are concerned, nothing can be taken for granted. It was such for Great Britain and Imperial Spain, and despite America’s repeated denials at being an empire it will be the same for the Stars and Stripes.The last time, America found herself embroiled in a war she could not get out was of course in Vietnam, which had become a defeat in 1968 after the Tet offensive which led to the dramatic annoucement at the time by the then President Lyndon Johnson that he would not be seeking a second term at office. It took another seven years for them to leave, during which time they had held talks at least twice with their sworn enemy, the Vietcong, on each time the demand of their foes was the same – a complete withdrawal. Today, the demands of the Taliban are the same – a complete withdrawal, but with some 70,000 US troops still remaining after 2012, those in Afghanistan who are hoping to see the last helicopter gunship leaving the skies of Kabul may have to wait a while longer.