On the one hand, US officials are constantly claiming “progress” in the Afghan War, citing territorial gains and massive death tolls against the insurgency as proof that the war is, some 10 years in, coming together under some sort of plan.
At the same time, NATO’s own figures show the insurgency isn’t getting any smaller, Gen. Petraeus is now reported to be on the way out, and today Admiral Michael Mullen informed Congress that 2011 will be an even more violent year in Afghanistan than the record 2010 was.
“The fighting will be tough and often costly,” Mullen informed the committee in a prepared statement, which added that the violence to come would be “greater than last year,” which may sound familiar, because violence in Afghanistan has gotten worse year after year, and record tolls always find a way to be topped.
Officials keep saying rising violence is a sign of Taliban desperation, but we’re now talking about several years of “desperation” spikes that never go away. It seems difficult to fathom, then, how the ever worsening situation continues to be spun as progress. and worse, how it continues to be convincing enough that Congress takes them at their word.
"…Congress takes them at their word" But, but, they're the EXPERTS on the ground. You don't really expect the well-entrenched congresscritters to question the commanders on the ground? It's going to be interesting with the new batch of TPers wanting to cut the budget and the pentagon continuing to insist that they're making progress even though the number of insurgents continues to climb and the "progress" is really, really well disguised as, well, not progress. The number of American people who say they're tired of the war and that it wasn't worth it continues to grow and with the 2012 election cycle starting to crank up – and the number of social program cuts starts to sink in – I wonder how long the warmongers can continue to justify more war? When the "under 55's" realize that they may have to work another 5 years before they can collect on social security – when they realize that the cuts are going to affect them directly, they might just have one of those "enlightenment" moments.
For thousands of years Afghanistan has earned the reputation as "the graveyard of soldiers and of empires".
NOTHING has changed – America is just too stupid and too arrogant to think that our invasion of Afghanistan is going to turn out any different from any other invader – dead American soldiers and the end of the American empire!