Petraeus has trashed Obama and his staffers' blandishments about the exit date from the mess they have exacerbated over 10 years in Afghanistan. Among the other things it demonstrates is the weakness of Obama and his 'strategies' which are now, in Iraq as well as Afghanistan, transparent and tawdry PR exercises. He didn't start any of the debacles but is rapidly leaving an inept and bloodstained set of fingerprints all over them. The latest protest by Afghan civilians against the continued murderous and bungled night raids which Obama favours so much took place yesterday. Details here. Karzai is out of the country or his perfunctory weekly condemnation of Nato's incompetence would already have been issued.
Lack of clear goals dooms most conventional wars; counterinsurgency has no chance of success without expert and resolute political leadership. Obama knew he would backtrack on July 2011 when the White House came up with the idea in the first place, and that they can continue moving it back while giving the impression of leaving. Petraeus planned to delay all along too - certainly no honesty can be found in US strategy. Washington is conditioning the US and NATO publics for a quicker exit, fully aware that insurgencies are measured in decades, not months or years.
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