They Had Their Chance and They Failed

The perplexities of what's going on in Afghanistan and how to move forward almost always escapes popular discourse. I think there's room for plenty of opinions on the subject and I'm by no means an expert in the field of waging war. What I do know is that if you are going to try as best as possible to do the right thing to achieve the best possible outcome, the last thing you would want to do is listen to the people who are responsible for the mess in the first place.

If someone built you a house and it began caving in all around you would you go back to that person and ask them the best way to fix it? No, you would find someone else to make things right. And then you would sue the hind end off the moron that screwed you over.

Now I know "responsible" is a major word for Republicans and easily evaded, but it doesn't require genius IQ to realize the people with the least amount of credibility on the subject of Afghanistan are the Bushies. Why Dick Cheney would think his opinion would even matter is a great question to ask the remaining 20% of voters who still identify themselves as Republican.

For 8 years the Bush administration "dithered" in Afghanistan while they deployed 150,000 troops to go fight somewhere else. When in 2008, after 7 years of war, Gen. David D. McKiernan requested more troops so he could better wage that war, the Bush administration denied it. Looking now toward George Bush or Dick Cheney for answers on how to resolve the situation would be like asking Hoover what's the best way to deal with a Depression. It's not necessarily their ego that confounds the situation, it's that they were entirely wrong about all of it.