01 September 2009

General Lord George Wont



Why do thee suppose, Dr. Bones, that General Lord George Will was all gung-ho for aggression into and occupation of the former al-‘Iráq, but now cares not at all about creatin’ the happiness of the former Khorasán?


America's finest are ... in Washington's hands. This city should keep faith with them by rapidly reversing the trajectory of America's involvement in Afghanistan, where, says the Dutch commander of coalition forces in a southern province, walking through the region is "like walking through the Old Testament." U.S. strategy -- protecting the population -- is increasingly troop-intensive while Americans are increasingly impatient about "deteriorating" (says Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) conditions. The war already is nearly 50 percent longer than the combined U.S. involvements in two world wars, and NATO assistance is reluctant and often risible. The U.S. strategy is "clear, hold and build." Clear? Taliban forces can evaporate and then return, confident that U.S. forces will forever be too few to hold gains. Hence nation-building would be impossible even if we knew how, and even if Afghanistan were not the second-worst place to try: [t]he Brookings Institution ranks Somalia as the only nation with a weaker state.


Happy days.