“As NATO expanded its role in Afghanistan in late 2005, on December 19 [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld ordered that three thousand U.S. soldiers, a sixth of the force, be pulled out of the country. Though this was little noticed in the United States…Lieutenant General David Barno, who was then commanding U.S. forces in Afghanistan, later explained that this announcement sent exactly the wrong signal to other countries in the region: ‘Tragically, I believe that this misunderstood message caused both friends and enemies to recalculate their options–with a view toward the U.S. no longer being a lead actor in Afghanistan. …Many of the shifts in enemy activity and even the behavior of Afghanistan’s neighbors, I believe, can be traced to this period.’ “
– Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 182