Questions About Afghanistan

Obama has recently announced that US troops will end combat in mid 2013 and then end their advisory role in Afghanistan in 2014. I have a problem with this. I don't get why the commander in chief would announce his intentions to the enemy beforehand. Continually we see this - others have done this as well. I would think if this is a serious war worth fighting for, that we would at least conceal our intentions from our enemies. Other questions I have are:

1. Why are we leaving?
2. Did we meet our objectives?
3. What were our objectives exactly?
4. Why did Obama triple our troops in Afghanistan over the past three years?
5. What has been accomplished by tripling our troop levels in Afghanistan?
6. What will happen once we leave?
7. What happens if the Taliban come back to power?

I realize the military have to keep some secrets and the public can't know everything. But I just thought, since Obama is already telling the Taliban what our time horizon is, that he probably doesn't care what he tells them.

I do believe that if the current president were someone with the initials GWB, that the media would hold him more accountable. But it is amazing how one man's surge was scrutinized to the molecule, while another man's surge wasn't even analyzed. Obama's surge wasn't even called a surge - the increase in troop levels were all but ignored.

I'm all for bringing home our troops who have been there long enough, and have done everything that has been asked of them. But can we get some answers from our Commander in Chief also?