I want us out of Afghanistan, too. It is a major defense zone for us, and it is stategically located, but I still want our soldiers home or in countries where the bad guys are actually labeled correctly. Let some other major countries figure this stuff out. The back and forth bribes just prolong the misery for all.
If the terrorists didn't hide like cowards behind the civilians, a lot less doors would have to be bashed in at 3:00 AM. I am sick of these kinds of comments. Folks, terrorists don't care. They are extremists just like any other extremist group. They have brainwashed followers who, I suspect, follow just to eat on a regular basis. I have lived in a third world country, and folks it isn't pretty. In the 70s the USA sent all this food aid to the western countries in Africa. By the time it got stolen, blackmarketed, and remarked, the poorest of the poor thought Russia had supplied the relief. It was sad. We even organized protection so a good amount got to the villages. It was never enough. Individuals did what we could to help our employees and their families. I hope we left the impression that Americans would do everything possible to keep children from going to bed hungry at night.

                 Not trying to be argumentative, but according the United Nations the Taliban is indeed a terrorist organization.

Tafoer
I don’t know if you were just trying to be argumentative or you misinterpreted what I wrote. The Taliban’s Sharia Law is despicable and is a form of terrorism but I was comparing it to al Qaeda who takes their mission abroad…..The right vilified John Kerry ,when he said that our military knocks down doors at 3:00AM (they did) terrorizing the civilians. For full political effect the right said Kerry said our troops were terrorist.
I never tried to prop up the Taliban….I just was saying we don’t have the time, resourses, or will to change that country and we will not try to install a Jeffersonian type government in Afghanistan.

My cut and paste below, this in and of itself is terrorism.

Life under the Taliban regime
Sharia law was interpreted to ban a wide variety of activities hitherto lawful in Afghanistan: employment, education and sports for women, movies, television, videos, music, dancing, hanging pictures in homes, clapping during sports events, kite flying, and beard trimming. One Taliban list of prohibitions included:

pork, pig, pig oil, anything made from human hair, satellite dishes, cinematography, and equipment that produces the joy of music, pool tables, chess, masks, alcohol, tapes, computers, VCRs, television, anything that propagates sex and is full of music, wine, lobster, nail polish, firecrackers, statues, sewing catalogs, pictures, Christmas cards.

Men were required to have a beard extending farther than a fist clamped at the base of the chin. On the other hand, they had to wear their head hair short. Men were also required to wear a head covering.
Possession was forbidden of depictions of living things, including photographs of them, stuffed animals, and dolls.[These rules were issued by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Suppression of Vice (PVSV) and enforced by its "religious police," a concept thought to be borrowed from the Wahhabis. In newly conquered towns hundreds of religious police beat offenders — typically men who shaved and women who were not wearing their burqa properly — with long sticks.Theft was punished by the amputation of a hand, rape and murder by public execution. Married adulterers were stoned to death. In Kabul, punishments were carried out in front of crowds in the city's former soccer stadium.

Good points Alton
I agree but I think they have changed their game plan according to war correspondent Tom Ricks ...Since the Taliban are not terrorist and they have no intention of blowing up buildings in NY ,we are going to let them enforce their Sharia law without interference and we will not try to defeat them, if they can come to some agreement to expel al Qaeda from Afghanistan and not let them set up their training camps...If this is accomplished, we will leave...You are exactly right; our military leaders are convinced we cannot defeat them militarily because of the landscape,our economic problems, and we know they will  just wait us out.

I guess, I don't understand your definition of first major speech, it seems to me, President Obama is making a major speech every few days.  Yep, he is withdrawing all troops, EXCEPT 30,000, 
I have never understood why we got involved in Afghanistan. Afghanistan was a country that all major empire armies avoided.  The Persians, the Romans, the Germans, and others.  It has never been conquered in over 1,000 years.  We saw how it broke the might of the USSR.
Now, it would be very very impressive, and a major change in history, if we made a difference.