Occupation Junior

I hate to say it, folks, but in my opinion, the only way that we're going to achieve success (or victory, if you prefer the Bush/McCain term) in Afghanistan is if we do the same thing we did in Iraq. And, no, I'm not referring to any sort of surge strategy (either the one that Bush implemented in Iraq or the one that Obama is promising for Afghanistan), either. I'm talking about the fact that we're probably going to have to go to bed with (as in make a deal with) a number of rather unsavory individulals; so-called moderate elements of the Taliban (maybe throw in a couple of warlords and drug-dealers, to boot).......................................I mean, think about it here. That's what got us to tamp down the violence in Iraq - not the frigging troop surge , for Christ! Add to that the fact that the Soviet Union and the Brits, at the height of their own world power (damn it!) couldn't subdue that perpetually backward and mountainous country. What makes John McCain and Barack Obama think that we (a war weary country at best, these days) are going to do appreciably better (17,000 extra troops - yeah, right, that ought to do it, NOT!)?..........................................And even if we do tamp down the violence (via the deal-making, additional checkpoints, etc.), does anybody really think that the result will be sustainable? Me, I tend to think that once in fact we leave these places (i.e., Iraq and Afghanistan), they're just going to get frigging hellish again........................................Look, I'm not saying that these countries are NEVER going to change. But, if they do, it's going to have to come from the inside. Just like the critics of George Bush have said all along, "You cannot build Democracy at the point of a gun."