Chairman Michael Steele, at a fundraiser in Connecticut talking about the Afghanistan war: "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 a land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed."
This time, surprisingly, Michael Steele is perfectly correct. The most recent foreign debacle in Afghanistan occurred to the former Soviet Union, which -- were they still in existence -- would be saying I Told You So! Indeed, the very concept of winning the war in Afghanistan is as murky and unclear as Mr. Steeles usual perceptions of reality. That is what makes his recent statement on this matter so surprising.
Former, now retired, General Stanley McChrystal found another way of telling the White House that the Afghan war is unwinnable -- running his mouth to a reporter for Rolling Stone Magazine. Not that the interview he and some of his key officers gave was smart, at least for them, but it could be smart for the White House and the nation to listen to these very-knowledegable Army officers and read between the lines, before more troops from the U.S. and other NATO nations are killed and injured, more of our resources are wasted, and more of the small remaining public support for this unwinnable war is eroded.
