Remember "A Bridge Too Far," the movie about World War II? I think we may be seeing the equivalent now. With General Petraeus taking over in Afghanistan, expectations are starting to crop up based on his "success" with the surge in Iraq.
And that would be what, exactly? We've given them elections, but they don't result in a new government and whatever government they had probably couldn't deliver reliable electric power to their cities. They've stopped killing each other quite as freely, but by any standards other than Iraqi, the civil war goes on.
But however weak his legacy really was in Iraq, there was at least a pleasant illusion that he had succeeded. Now he has Afghanistan. Nobody, from Alexander the Great on, has marched into Afghanistan and later marched out, thinking back about what a splendid idea it was. Not the Macedonians, not the British, not the Russians, and now not us. There is no good outcome in the works. And it's Petraeus' baby now.
They say it's technically a demotion. Technically, politically, spiritually, ...
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