expecting the afghans to install a legitimate government is what got us the Taliban in the first place. we know how that turned out. and it will be decades before there is a government "that can provide the security and the type of services that the Afghan people need". waiting for this to happen is a convenient excuse to bail out.
John Kerry: Strategy depends on AfghansWhite House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) said Sunday that Afghanistan must install a legitimate government before the president sends more U.S. troops to the country.
The Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai isn’t currently at the point where it can become a partner with the United States to govern the country, and it would be irresponsible to add troops without an assessment of the risks, Emanuel said.
“The question at the heart is ... do you have a credible Afghan partner for this process that can provide the security and the type of services that the Afghan people need?” Emanuel said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We would love the luxury of this debate to be reduced down to one question: additional troops, 40,000. This is a much more complex decision.”
Allegations of fraud in the country’s August elections have left Afghanistan in a state of political limbo at a time when President Barack Obama is deciding how to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Following widespread allegations of fraud in Karzai’s reelection, electoral watchdogs are expected to announce their support for a second round of balloting; it is unclear whether Karzai will agree.
Obama is engaged in a lengthy review of the military’s Afghan war strategy, after Gen. Stanley McChrystal warned in a recent report that the U.S. and NATO campaign there would fail without additional troops; he reportedly is seeking as many as 40,000 more U.S. soldiers.
More 
