Southern Afghan Power Brokers Under Attack

President Obama's national troop withdrawal address might have helped him in the polls domestically, but it is not helping our friends in Southern Afghanistan, who have come under increasing attacks the past couple of months.

Since the United States, and other war allies, have started to pull troops out of Afghanistan - Ahmed Karzai and Jan Khan (both close with Hamid Karzai) have been assassinated - while the tough anti-crime/Taliban Mayor of Kandahar was murdered earlier today near his office by a suicide bomber.

All three were powerhouses in Southern Afghanistan, who held significant sway and who will be hard to replace. This creates a dangerous power vacuum, which the Taliban and other local jihadist networks would love to fill.

With our role starting to decrease in Afghanistan, all for political reasons, the Taliban is striking hard against our Afghan allies in an attempt to weaken their resolve to carry-on the fight when we leave them basically defenseless in 2014. The rise of the Taliban, if it occurs, is on our hands if we do not stop them now.

What say you?