Kabul Cabal

--Money, Andy Warhol

There 's no success like failure
and failure is no success at all
--Love Minus Zero, Bob Dylan
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For those who like their Sparkle Ponies mint green: "Invoking the 9/11 attacks, Obama proposed a major push to expand Afghan security forces, improve the responsiveness of the Kabul government, reduce corruption, fight drug trafficking, and combat the Taliban. He'll also boost Pakistan's counter-terror capacity and encourage detente with India" (Slate: Return of the Benchmarks).

In a war that still has no end in sight, Obama said the fresh infusion of U.S. forces is designed to bolster the Afghan army and turn up the heat on terrorists that he said are plotting new attacks against Americans. (Obama: 4,000 Troops to Afghanistan.)

If a war has no end in sight, it is not a war. It is an exercise in national futility. Wars have endgames which can be defined and articulated. This clarity is lacking in the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©)

"President Barack Obama on Friday ordered 4,000 more military troops into Afghanistan, vowing to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat" the terrorist al-Qaida network in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan."

Is there in fact an al-Qaeda terror network in Afghanistan, or is it simply Taliban resistance to the U.S. occupation? This is a poor mission statement as al-Qaeda in Afghanistan was defeated long ago. However, it is evident that the Taliban is resurgent.

Taliban and al-Qaeda are still not the same dog, regardless of close linkages in the past. What do current intl estimates say about the relationship, 2009. U.S. policies today cannot be based upon 2001 relationships.

Where will the increased funding come from --"Obama's plan will also cost many more billions of dollars"? And whose pockets will it line, once disbursed? A good guess is the leadership of the Kabul Cabal will tuck these Billions into their escape duffle bags for future contingencies. (After all, the Overseas Contingency Operation can't go on forever, can it?)

"Obama bluntly warned that the al-Qaida terrorists who masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were actively planning further attacks on the United States from safe havens in Pakistan."

Fear-mongering at its finest, taking a page from Condi Rice's mushroom cloud play, albeit with a softer touch. Give us facts, Mr. President. This is no change, this is feed from the same trough of hysteria. It is a worn out record. Maybe you don't know from vinyl, being as your 48-year-old self is so Ipod. But the needles starts skipping grooves once scratched, and one ultimately cannot hear the song; not groovy at all.

Obama is now expanding the U.S. goal as being the removal of al-Qaida from Pakistan as well as Afghanistan, "and to prevent their return to either country in the future." Talk about mission creep.

If President Lincoln is Obama's template, he should take a page from Lincoln's approach to the Civil War. He tried to contain the hostilities rather than expand them, endeavoring to keep many of the states out of the war. Expanding theatres of operations is not an economy of force measure.

Not wanting to look like a wuss, Obama says his cause is "just," "And to the terrorists who oppose us, my message is the same: we will defeat you."

O.k., Commandante O.: Assuming the U.S. defeats the Taliban and kills every al-Qaeda dipshit in the theatre of operations, there is but one question which persists:

How is the victory to be paid for? Are we planning to extract their gold teeth?