The report of the Afghanistan Study Group makes arguments that stand a good chance of moving the Washington debate towards ending the war.

The majority of Americans want the Obama Administration to establish a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, CBS News reports. But if General Petraeus has his way, the State Department will designate part of the Afghan Taliban as a terrorist organization.That would undermine peace moves in Afghanistan, the New York Times reports – peace moves that the Administration told Newsweek that it supports. Petraeus’ move would undermine not only a timetable for withdrawal, but the “serious drawdown” in July 2011 that Vice President Biden told Newsweek we can “bet on” and Speaker Pelosi told the Huffington Post she expects.

As pressure to end the war builds in Washington, supporters of the war in Afghanistan will invariably return to their strongest argument: the threat of Al-Qa’eda. However, a reasonable understanding of the terrorist organization shows that even Al-Qa’eda is not enough to justify a bloody and expensive occupation.

When Afghan President Karzai meets President Obama, Afghan government officials have said their top priority is to get Obama to agree the U.S. will fully back efforts of the Afghan government to reconcile with senior leaders of the Afghan Taliban insurgency in order to end the war. Saying yes to the Afghan government’s request for US support for peace talks would seem like a no-brainer.

The United States and NATO are poised to launch a major assault in the Marjah district in southern Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of Afghan civilians are in imminent peril. Will President Obama and Congress act to protect civilians in Marjah, in compliance with the obligations of the United States under the laws of war?