Print We need to accept the facts about Afghanistan. No one has ever controlled the whole country. When we had more than 100,000 troops there we might have controlled the cities, but not the countryside. We have been training Afghanistan’s security forces for more than 17 years. I guess we must be poor teachers, because I was very good at my job in the military after just one year of training and another year on the job. So, it really doesn’t make a difference whether we leave tomorrow or in 2030, because Afghanistan will end up in a civil war. Advertisement