Right on the heels of yesterday’s Times piece on our new riches in Afghanistan, this morning’s story tells us that a Friedman Unit has passed and it’s time for more troops. But the White House says we’re supposed to wait another FU before deciding:
Even before the recent setbacks, the military was highly skeptical of setting a date to start withdrawing, but Mr. Obama insisted on it as a way to bring to conclusion a war now in its ninth year.
For now, the White House has decided to wait until a review, already scheduled for December, to assess whether the target date can still work.
Obviously, the functioning of the FU in Afghanistan is not quite the same as the Iraqi variety. The Iraq FU required that all serious participants keep up the charade that things were working until the last possible minute, when everyone finally conceded that a mere 6 more months would be required to really fix things. Perhaps the Afghani FU has some sort of look-ahead window? Since I’m not a serious person, these little details escape me.
cleek
so, besides having some lithium, Afghanistan is an inescapable blood-sucking money pit?
what an amazing discovery!
sadly, this is another thing the Russians learned years before we did.
LittlePig
Everybody knows that just before the conclusion is when you penetrate the deepest, amirite?
ChrisS
Sigh.
This fucking country is in dire need of an enema.
I can’t wait until the GOP is back in charge. They’re going to fix the environmental problems facing the US by gutting the EPA and deregulating everything and fix the economy by cutting taxes. They’ll keep torturing people abroad and continue to dial up the police state here. And they’ll end America’s military problems by continuing fighting two endless occupations in foreign countries while trying to stoke up a third.
Napoleon
@cleek:
And the British before them.
cleek
longest war in US history!
U! S! A! U! S! A!
arguingwithsignposts
What is with the military and these damned endless “reviews”? They’re spending a year reviewing DADT. Now they’re going to spend a year reviewing Afghanistan. Does it really take a year to determine there’s fuck-all we can do to win this war? If they were spending a year reviewing how we can get out of this mess as soon as possible, i could see it, but …
The Grand Panjandrum
A Friedman Unit here, a Friedman Unit there. Pretty soon we’ll be talking about real time. Unless, of course, you happen to be in the line of fire, or a loved one is in the line of fire, then each passing minute is real time.
Evinfuilt
@arguingwithsignposts:
It may take a year to decide that we can/won’t leave, but it only takes a few weeks* to decide to invade.
That’s US priorities.
*Key to invasion, ignore history.
joe from Lowell
Have you considered the possibility that the Obama administration is not JUST LIKE BUSH!, and that shallow, facile comparisons between a cynical series of PR moves to ward off political pressure, and a good-faith effort to base policy on the best available information, aren’t precisely the same thing?
Wait, what am I saying? Of course you haven’t!
El Cid
You don’t understand — we have this new new counter-insurgency strategy for Afghanistan, which is even betterer that the SUUUUUUURGE in Iraq which solved all Iraq’s problems and proved that we could do an occupation right.
oliver's Neck
“Afghani” names the Afghan currency. You ought to use “Afghan” here.
My Afghan friend informed me of this distinction when I made the same mistake.
Alan in SF
Since Obama decided to keep the same Bush appointees in charge of the perpetual war, I’d have to say the only thing that’s changed is some Democrats’ perceptions of the war. Now we’re for it!
Delia
But now that Unobtainium has been discovered everything is changed. I’m sure that’s good for six or seven FU’s at least. We’ll know for sure if the ten-foot blue people with the organic USB ports in their hair show up.
Amanda in the South Bay
Isn’t this equally a failure on the part of team Obama for…perpetuating the status quo in A-Stan? Our Failed Media Experiment indeed, but maybe a new tag for Our Failed Liberal Foreign Policy Establishment?
Tax Analyst
I’ve got an idea: Why don’t we build an ultra-gigantic idol right smack in the middle of Afghanistan. I mean a positively HUMUNGOUS graven image made out of plastic foam and wood built over steel. Make sure the hands are huge and outstretched towards the heavens and that it is located in an area prone to lightning strikes. Just build it and then just fucking leave it to curiousity and the next storm season and see what happens.
I don’t know what exactly would happen, but it couldn’t end up being any more feckless, futile, and altogether feeble than what we have been doing there the last 9 years or so.
Daddy-O
The Friedman Unit! Dirty Fucking Hippies! Blogger ethics panel! Preznit Can I Haz Turkee! Torture Lou Dobbs! Drinking Liberally Tuesday!
How did the Internets ever get by before Atrios started blogging? He’s invented more catch-phrases than anyone I can think of…
:)