Wow, I’d love to know whether the MSM was going bonkers over nothing (per usual), but I can hardly stand reading that thing. Vulgar, discursive, and seemingly interminable. Worst of all are stupid statements like:
“When it comes to Afghanistan, history is not on McChrystal’s side. The only foreign invader to have any success here was Genghis Khan – and he wasn’t hampered by things like human rights, economic development and press scrutiny.”
Afghanistan is one of the most conquered territories in the history of the world, you complete ignoramous. Where do these rumors start? The U.S. has already had “success” in the same manner as the great Khan, who in addition to not caring about human rights also didn’t care about nation-building. Just because the Soviets couldn’t do it (and there was lots they couldn’t do, for instance feed their population) doesn’t mean no one can.
But eventually all of them found the cost of holding on to the place too high for what it was worth and the natives all too ready to fight on from the mountains and caves. In the immortal words of Rudyard Kipling about how Queen Victoria's troops were treated there:
When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.