The Obama administration is making the right moves in Iraq. In Afghanistan, it’s harder to say.

On Sunday, President Obama reiterated intentions to follow his timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq. The plan ends the combat mission on Aug. 31, 2010, and having all remaining U.S. forces leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

Good. The war needs to end. Iraq wants to govern itself and it can. Why squander America’s treasure on rebuilding a place where the Iraqi people don’t want a U.S. presence and when so many problems face Americans? It’s time to rebuild our country.

On Afghanistan, he and his administration seem correct in narrowing the objectives, which were announced last week. Let’s get Osama bin Laden, like the U.S. should have in the years immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Let’s root out al-Qaida terrorists and hinder the Taliban.

However, as nice as that sounds, it is Afghanistan. It is a land-locked, war-torn country with a history of resisting empires. It’s a like a kid in school who can take more of a beating than the bully is able to dish out.

We are glad to hear diplomacy will have a major role in the Afghanistan efforts, but mostly we hope someday the role of policing this land can be handed over to the Afghanistan government and responsible countries on that side of the globe.

Then America can put its military might toward defending the borders, rather than protecting its overseas’ corporate interests. If the United States had had that stance in the first place, perhaps 9/11 could have been avoided. After all, it is the Department of “Defense.”