By the way, there is a still a war going on in Afghanistan, by most accounts, it is not going that well; and we probably need to increase our troop levels. On Thursday General John Nicholson, commanding general of NATO forces in Afghanistan, told congress “I believe we are in a stalemate.”: nato-shortfall-troops-afghanistan-us-general

Also: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/u-general-calls-more-troops-003147055.html

And: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/09/top-us-general-says-afghanistan-war-at-stalemate-more-troops-needed.html

I have no reason to quibble with that assessment. Victory is certainly not just around the corner.

Some data from these articles:

1. NATO has 13,300 troops in Afghanstan, about half of them American (8,400)
2. Afghan losses in the first ten months of 2016 were 6,785 killed, an increase of a third over 2015.
3. There were 11,500 civilians killed or injured in 2016, the most since the UN began keeping records in 2009 (nearly 3,500 killed and nearly 8,000 wounded).
4. Afghan government forces control no more than two-thirds of national territory (60% according to another article).
5. “We have roughly a two-to-one ratio of contractors to soldiers,” said Nicholson.
   1. So, this works out to be 17,000 contractors, 8,400 American troops and 4,900 other NATO troops.
6. Cost of the 16 year war so far: around 2,000 American lives and $117 billion.

Needless to say, General Johnson has recommended that we increase troop levels there. He has asked for several thousand more. We did have around 100,000 troops there in 2011, now we have less than 10,000.