We have lost the initiative to win hearts & minds of the Afghani people. Our military successfully achieved the objective of hunting down Osama Bin Laden. The recent incident involving American soldier and Afghani civilians guarantees that the US will never win the hearts & minds.
If we pull out now then we can invest the money saved in to rebuilding our economy, our infrastructure, and thereby regain the firm economic footing that has eluded us in the 21st century.