More Mistruths Over Afghanistan

The Obama administration is trying to pretend that no one foresaw that its series of "surges" in Afghanistan was based on overly optimistic assumptions. Per Jake Tapper of ABC News:

In an EXCLUSIVE interview on “This Week,” CIA Director Leon Panetta said that making progress in Afghanistan is both “harder” and going more slowly than anticipated.

“There are some serious problems” in Afghanistan, Panetta said. “We’re dealing with tribal societies. We’re dealing with a country that has problems with governance, problems with corruption, problems with narcotics trafficking, problems with a Taliban insurgency,” he said.

But, the CIA director said, the U.S. is making progress in Afghanistan. “It’s harder, it’s slower than I think anyone anticipated. But at the same time, we are seeing increasing violence,” he told host Jake Tapper.

Wrong. Your humble blogger, sitting at home in the United States and referring to nothing other than public information on the Web, was one of a number of voices pointing out all the factors that Mr. Panetta references above. And of course he was being discreet when he talks about "governance" issues. Of course he means "corruption". But what we call corruption is the way politics is done there. All of which means that the U. S./NATO is/are fighting for one group of what we consider crooks over the Taliban.

Is it worth borrowing money (and taking deaths and injuries, of course) for a long slow slog for the Karzai gang?

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