MoDo on McChrystal

Look, in my last post, I was pretty tough on General McChrystal myself, but this from Maureen Dowd is just silly. In order:

"Military guys are rarely as smart as they think they are..."

Neither are bitter, spinster, op-ed columnists.

"It's just another sign of the complete incoherence of Afghan policy. The people in charge are divided against each other. And the policy is divided against itself. We're fighting a war against an enemy that we're desperately trying to co-opt and win over in a country where Al Qaeda, which was supposed to be the enemy, is no longer based."

They are no longer based there because we sent an army to drive them out.

"Even our corrupt puppet doesn't think we can prevail. As Dexter Filkins recently reported in The Times, Hamid Karzai told two former Afghan officials that he had lost faith in the Americans and was trying to strike his own deal with the Taliban and Pakistan."

Maybe he's lost faith because he's judged that this Administration, and liberal Democrats in general, lack the stomach for long, difficult struggles like this one and are simply looking for a quick way out. And if they follow Dowd's counsel, he would be exactly right.

"After nine years, more than a thousand troops dead, and hundreds of billions spent that could have been put toward developing new forms of fuel so that all our miseries and all our fun doesn't derive from oil, we've fought our way to a stalemate."

Let me get this straight, if the U.S. were energy independent, the radical Muslims would leave us alone. Right? But what about Israel? OK, if we were energy independent and ended our relationship with Israel, then the radical Muslims will leave us alone. What about Europe? Alright, already, if we became energy independent, ended our relationship with Israel, and that which we have with Europe, then the radical Muslims will leave us alone. What about...? Please.

"But he has met his match in Afghan warriors, who have clobbered every foreign invader since Alexander the Great. The average Afghan fighter lives on grain, a bowl of rice, a bottle of water. How much does it cost by comparison to have a foreign soldier in Afghanistan?"

How much does it cost to repair or replace the Twin Towers? What price do you place on the 3,000 murdered on 9/11?

Why this woman is taken seriously is beyond me. But then I just did, didn't I? Shame on me.