The war is over; we lost

Why are we still faffing about in Afghanistan? The Afghans don't want us there; the Americans don't want us there. Nor do the Europeans want us there, though they're too polite or embarrassed to say so.

Four years ago, Mr. Obama was dissing George W. Bush for wasting resources on Iraq when we should have been pursuing the "good war" in Afghanistan. How did that work out? The Bush strategy in Iraq worked: we are now out of there, and the country is going along fairly well on its own, as well as any Middle Eastern nation outside of Israel. And Afghanistan? Mr. Obama's "good war" is a shambles. And now Hamid Karzai has offered us the life raft. "You want us to pull back our forces? Well, that's a shame, but if it's what you really want...."

Good grief. How do you win a war when your own side wants you to back off? Blue skies! -- Dan Ford