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The least that should be done immediately is a withdrawal of combat/counterinsurgency forces and replacing the operations with a centralized counter-terrorism operation (option 2 in the article). That's now. It should have happened a while ago now, long before Bin Laden's death.
This should eventually be tapered down to leaving entirely once the government and security forces in Afghanistan can prove that they can stand on their own.
There is no need to make it easy for a backslide into fundamentalism or theocracy.
The best-case scenario would see a complete withdrawal by the end of the year, but that's being a bit too hopeful I think.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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