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Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

I guess The McChrystal Flap has caused an extra moment or two of reflection on what the hell we're doing in Afghanistan all these years later. What hasn't been said much, and should be alluded to every time the subject comes up is this: there was at one time a good chance that our incursion there might have been quickly and productively resolved. We could chave been out of there long ago, having made a demonstration of the penalty to be paid for attacks on America, and having left millions grateful there, in a liberated and pacified nation. Instead, they largely hate us there, with good reason. The religious fanatics of the Taliban are about to come back into power there and go to work again with Osama and Al Qaeda, because we let them and him slip away. The authors of this collosal bungle, collosal string of bungles, were Bush and Cheney, who were already fucking up badly in Afghanistan, but not badly enough for their tastes -- for they soon took their eyes off the ball to begin a multi-trillion-dollar boondoggle in Iraq. And yet our pundits don't seem to think one mess has anything to do with the other.

Iraq? they wonder. What's Iraq?

posted by Kalkaino @ 9:08 AM