Coach Patraeus Sez

"We are in this to win. We have arrived at a critical moment."

Anybody keep track of how many "critical moments" there have been in Afghanistan?

"As we press on in our vital mission, we must continue our efforts to reduce the loss of innocent civilians to an absolute minimum."

Which is all well and good, except if you're one of the minimum. I find it perplexing that few people seem to get that. It's always okay to bomb the fuck out of "them".. while poo poo'ing about keeping the innocent body count to a "minimum", but it has to suck if it's you that ends up dead.

Of course.. nobody actually explains what "winning" in Afghanistan means... because we all know that nothing can be won there, and that realization would be devastating for the families of the dead.

I'd imagine they hope to just let it fizzle out slowly over time, so that there is no jarring reckoning. They probably regret not just doing the usual "bomb the fuck out of everything for a few weeks and call it 'won'" thing. They could have claimed a just victory over the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks... and had a freedom parade.. or something.

Even the chairman of the GOP gets it;

"Well, if he's such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed."

So ya.. a lot of Democrats thought invading Afghanistan would be awesome.. you know.. in an "America - Fuck Yeah!" kind of way. It's been nearly 10 years. I shoulda bought defense industry stocks I guess.