[Kragh]

It was the concensus during the campaign that Afghanistan was a legitimate war, perhaps it was. The reality is the years it would take to educate the people, grow a ruling class that has the best interest of the populace in mind, seal off the border with Pakistan and make the Taliban irrelevant. I think Obama was playing for time, time to reinvent relations with Pakistan and the region so an uneasy peace could result. How could anyone believe anything close to a victory can be achieved there? In my opinion, we should have just gone in there in the beginning, destroyed their armed forces, raised their infrastructure, assasinated any enimies we could have found, and left. Maybe a cruise missle or two every now and then to let them know we are watching. It would have been far less lethal, less expensive and at least as effective. Obama is living with his decision right now, one he surely regrets.