"David Nebenzahl" wrote in message
.com...

I'll buy that (your response), on the grounds that the wise, prudent and
long-range thing to do would to have never set foot in that place in the
first place.

I feel the invasion was justified (which is not the same thing as wise) in
that Bin Laden was operating from there, although it's notable that when he
was cornered at Tora Bora the pleas of the CIA/Special Forces team leader to
have Army Rangers dropped in behind Bin Laden so he couldn't escape to
Pakistan were ignored by Washington.¹ However I see little chance of a
stable democracy being established in Afghanistan in the foreseeable future,
maybe it would have been different if the resources poured into Iraq had
gone to Afghanistan instead. But then there is the problem of leaving
Afghanistan putting more pressure on Pakistan, and Pakistan has nukes we
don't want kicking around loose.

But now, of course, Obama has made it *his* war. It's no longer Bush's
folly.

Indeed. Sooner or later they'll have to pretend things are stable enough to
pull out, that constant drain of blood and money can't be sustained forever.
Among other things it's too bad they backed a national leader for
Afghanistan who is massively corrupt and apparently a bit crazy.

Of course if Obama had ordered an immediate withdrawal when he took office
the right would be screaming that he had abandoned Afghanistan, that the war
could have been won if only he'd shown more guts and so on. I can't help
but think of Nixon, who inherited a war he was eventually smart enough to
get out of but only after long years of more slaughter.

¹Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda: A Personal Account by the
CIA's Key Field Commander, by Gary Berntsen