The Pace of Leaving Afghanistan A "steady pace" should mean withdrawing all combat forces on a schedule dictated only by the security of the troops. That should start now and should not take more than a year. We strongly supported the war in Afghanistan following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but after more than a decade of fighting and a cost upward of $500 billion it is time for a safe and orderly departure. If there was ever a serious chance of building a stable and prosperous Afghanistan, it was lost when President George W. Bush abandoned that challenge to pursue his pointless war in Iraq. It's unclear how Mr. Obama defines "steady pace." He said that his senior commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, would provide him with a formal recommendation on the pace of withdrawals after the November election. But the White House has still not asked General Allen for his assessment, nor has the Pentagon begun considering specific troop levels for 2013 and into 2014. Michael R. Gordon of The Times reported this week that military commanders are pressing to keep most of the remaining 66,000 troops in Afghanistan until the end of the 2013 fighting season in the fall and then withdrawing them in the year after that. But this slow withdrawal would do nothing to ensure that the Taliban does not regain territory or that Afghanistan's politics stabilize. And any hope of ridding the government of corruption seems less and less likely. What is certain is that the longer troops remain in the battlefield, the more that deaths and injuries will be sustained. The White House is already beginning to deal with another important decision: whether to leave a residual force after 2014 when the Afghan Army and police forces have full responsibility for the country's security. American and NATO military planners are drawing up the broad outlines of such a deployment. One option calls for about 10,000 Americans and several thousand non-American NATO troops, including a counterterrorism force of about 1,000 and other units to advise Afghan security forces. White House officials say Mr. Obama will consider options for the residual force soon, because that will affect negotiations already under way between Washington and Kabul on specific terms of their future security relationship. So far, President Obama has failed to make a case to the American people for a residual force of any size. The negotiations, which could take months, should not be an excuse to drag out a decision on the pace of withdrawing the remaining combat troops. More than 2,000 American military personnel have died in this war, and many thousands more have been maimed. There is no reason to delay the troops" return home by another year.