NEGOTIATING WITH THE TALIBAN

Richard Holbrook, the President's envoy on Afghanistan--whatever the hell thListening to him being interviewed, he sounds F...ing senile to me.

Negotiating with the Taliban. GREAT! Any way to get the hell out of Afghanistan. The military is saying they are forcing them to come to the table. Yeah, we definitely believe that. Now, of course, the guy who is suppose to be representing the Taliban is an imposter. This is great.

Reading or hearing about Afghanistan gets worse and then more absurd. It is damn crazy. And, what amazes me is that we are all reading the same stuff. In one story among many, it has one of the locals saying that the Soviets were better than the Americans because they did more projects. HELLO!

In a sense, it is unthinkable that we'd give the country back to a group of ruthless thugs, barbarians and lethal fanatics like the Taliban. The alternative is staying there forever. The counter insurgency strategy which we are supposedly following in winning the hearts and minds of the people essentially has no ending date. To be sure, somebody, somewhere understands that. You can't trust those like Holbrook and others tied to politics. If they don't lie, they spin. And, at the top levels of the military, they justify, denying reality and all the while our soldiers die. Wikileaks hasn't helped, only reinforced that which we already know; Karzai is paranoid, according to one document. Yes, this is news.

All the above being said in resignation, the President's deadline of July, 2011 appears to be our best hope. Here is a last zinger: Most Americans don't give a s..t anyway and the politicians could care less (anybody hear any Afghanistan rhetoric on the campaign trail). Want my scant evidence: the massive offensive to rid Kandahar City of the Taliban. The story is buried in an obscure page 10 of the NY Times. And, you better believe a media giant like The Times has the pulse of the people. And, why should the people care: all but 1% have no "skin in the game" and are not affected--now anyway. This is Vietnam revisited and worse. As we began to get out of Nam, it was "Vietnam who."

What makes our involvement in Afhanistan so hopeless to me is that we will stay. We have no great outpouring of "get out" like Vietnam and I don't think we will until it hurts us economincally or someway personally touches us. F...ing discouraging.
at is!