AFGHANISTAN ASSESSMENT

SITREP (situation report) for Afghanistan. Poor, bad, awful. These surely aren't the spin of the President and other admin figures as they talked about the Afghanistan Assessment. And, I will have to say that I feel badly being the "nay sayer" but I don't hear anybody else out there saying how stupid we are.


Have we made progress? Sure. We have tapped down some of the Taliban activity based on the saturation with troops. However, we continue to ignore even a modicum of truth. Even on Iraq, those like General Kean, retired, and talking on PBS's Newshour and comparing Iraq and now the surge of Afghanistan as working. It is an example of self delusion at worst and spin at best. The surge in Iraq merely separated the factions and ultimately performed a type of ethnic cleansing which moved the Sunnis out of Badgdad or to their own enclaves. I am not comvinced that it will not come back to haunt us but at least for today, violence appears to be reduced and Iraq is less a media story so it has slipped to the back section. But, the comparisons between Iraq and Afghanistan simply don't work.

I will say this for General Keen. He let it all hang out as relates to Pakistan. Despite the trainload of bucks we've given them, they are not helping and complicity, I suspect. I hope the good general is not on the payroll, his ass will get fired (think McChrystal. Presidents, even thinking ones, don't like less than public lockstep). Pakistan is simply one among many issues of Afghanistan--a fast train to nowhere. F..K.

In Afghanistan, we have a "tarbaby." remember the story: the tar baby is made of tar and turpentine as I remember. Brer Rabbit confronts the "tar baby." Brer Rabbit gets stuck. The more he fights, the more entangled he becomes. "Tar Baby" is more than a sticky situation--everyday the situation is aggravated because we keep trying to deal with the "tarbaby." Impossible and Americans keep dying!

The President is either bamboozled by the generals and his own group of "yes sir, yes sir, three bags full." Or, it is politics or a combination of both. I am still an Obama supporter but I am disappointed in his decisions on Afghanistan and his attempt of justifying our presence by using Bush and neocon rhetoric by evoking 9-11. Please! He should have rejected what the media put on him: Obama's War. "Hell no! Not my war. I am fulfilling my duty as Commander and Chief but I say again, hell no, not my war." The polls say 60% of Americans want to get the hell out. Hillary can take a "high falootin" view of "we don't make decisions by polls." The last time I looked, she's not running for office but you can bet your jollies that the pols are watching. Americans who care are becoming more and more weary as we continue to be stupid with our "Tar-baby" war while more and more young Americans die.