Obama admin's empty war rationale based on Kerry's 2004 campaign strategy of "the battle should really be in Afghanistan"

From:
Gene Healy: It's Obama's war, all right
(Washington Examiner) -- by Gene Healy --

July 13, 2010 Afghan insurgent attacks killed six U.S. soldiers Saturday, bringing the total to 1,171 -- and counting. Eight years after achieving our initial war aims, disrupting al Qaeda and punishing its Taliban protectors, we have 94,000 troops in-theater, chasing "50 to 100" Al Qaeda operatives, "maybe less," says President Obama's CIA director.

Good news, though: Construction of Kabul's 900,000-square-foot Police Training Center is "progressing according to plan." After $27 billion spent, Afghan police are still "illiterate, corrupt, and trigger-happy," their instructors lament, but a spiffy new training complex can't hurt.

Enough. With American casualties mounting, it's clearer than ever that "Operation Enduring Freedom" has become a sickening waste of blood and treasure.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele caught grief recently for suggesting the war was doomed to fail.

Steele, who has offended everyone from pro-lifers to Rush Limbaugh fans, truly has the gift of gaffe. But he wasn't wrong to call Afghanistan a "war of Obama's choosing." A recent National Journal graphic shows that under the president's Afghan "surge," OEF deployments passed Iraq troop levels in "a strategic pivot point" earlier this year.

Obama, Steele suggested, had bought into the Democratic "script" that has prevailed since the 2004 Kerry campaign: Iraq's a distraction -- "the battle should really be in Afghanistan." Obama's escalation of that battle raises young John Kerry's question about Vietnam: How do you ask someone "to be the last man to die for a mistake?"...MORE...LINK