A gamble that may not pay off

摘要

THE real question facing Ba-rack Obama over Afghanistan is just what the United States is trying to achieve there. Plenty of Americans, weary of war and anxious about their own plight at home, think that the death of Osama bin Laden should have marked an end to the mission that took 100,000 troops to a distant and dismal part of the world (see Lexington). Afghanistan will cost America roughly $120 billion this year. Many Americans want this money to go towards creating jobs in Kansas rather than in Kabul.