Local security forces do not offset the risks incurred by premature withdrawal of combat forces from Afghanistan. In fact, premature withdrawal of combat forces undermines the local security effort.

The White House hopes that a smooth transition will help them to begin drawing down American forces this summer and end the foreign combat mission in Afghanistan by 2014. But the withdrawal begins at a time when security is worse than it has been in nine years.

Sunday's drama reveals a rare opportunity to press Pakistan's army toward sorely needed reform. The ultimate goal should be a country that gives up its love affair with pan-Islamic adventurism and reorients itself toward its people's well-being.

Previous efforts by the Afghan government to negotiate peace with the Taliban have failed, and there is little hope the current process will bear fruit, so the United States and NATO should focus on defeating the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

For the U.S. to prevail in this game of chicken, it will have to accept two basic premises that it has shied away from thus far. First, that the Pakistani army is an adversary, if not an enemy. Second, that the U.S. can only win if the generals at army headquarters in Rawalpindi cease to believe that America will always blink first.

Look to Colombia, where the U.S. helped the government in Bogota achieve success short of complete victory.

Engagement with enemies remains President Obama's wonder drug, but the only path to victory in Afghanistan is to decisively defeat the Taliban leadership.

The United States should not substantially pull troops out of Afghanistan next month. The fight is nearing its climax and with progress fragile, the US needs every troop possible to maintain momentum.