Good news! The tide of war is receding, as the President has announced. Just not very fast. Things are going so well in Afghanistan, according to the President, that a year from now we will only have twice as many troops stationed there as we did when he came into office two years ago. Quelle victory!
Troop reductions are always a hustle—units are redeployed, but the troops in them are reassigned to the units who are staying, and troops whose tour was over are counted as a “reduction.” But even with all the gaming available to them, military leaders are still mad, probably because they realize how little they have accomplished. If only they were capable of realizing how little they can accomplish.
Afterwords
My early take on Afghanistan proved slightly more cynical than the actual facts have warranted—contrary to my expectations, the President actually decided to remove the “surge” troops more or less on schedule, instead of deciding, à la Iraq, that the surge had been so successful that it had to be extended. I should be so wrong more often.
As if to compensate, the President has brutally extended his war on the Constitution. Glenn Greenwald, as he is so often, is the bearer of all the gruesome details here, and there are plenty of them. In fact, their name is Legion.
My previous analysis was, um, a bit flawed because I had forgotten that General Petreaus is on schedule to take over as head of the CIA, rather than continuing as head of operations in Afghanistan. Well, that’s why he has four stars and I don’t.
Frankly, I’m a little surprised that Petreaus agreed to take the CIA job, which certainly comes with some perks, but nothing compared to the bells and whistles that come with being a four-star general. Maybe he’s sensing that the whole boots on the ground military thing is on the way out. Send in the drones, dude, send in the drones! We don’t have to see the blood!*
*There’s a lot not to like about drone warfare, but I can’t resist feeling a healthy chunk of schadenfreude at the thought of all those Air Force fighter jocks being displaced by nerds with joy sticks, not to mention the delicious possibility of mighty, 1000-foot aircraft carriers being downsized by 80 percent. Somewhere down the road, this might even translate into cost savings. But, given the military’s skill in extending useless programs, not in our lifetime.
Additional photographic note: This is a fake photo, ginned up by some shithead Republicans. Free speech! Enjoy it while you can!
