Afghan Reckoning Ahead

Ok, Fred Kaplan argues that the new President will have to get in shape quickly.

A side note--the quote below from Kaplan, while very apt, seems a bit blind:

This is one danger of holding a national election in a state that lacks a national consciousness or a civil society: The vote tends merely to politicize, and thus harden, longstanding social divisions.

Haven't elections in places like the US had the same impact.

Anyhow, what I mean is that I have been referring to a post where I would take a stand on the future of the NATO effort in Afghanistan--should it be armed state-building as some have called it or should we have more modest aims?

To preview a post that I hope to write tomorrow--think COIN, COIN, COIN. That would be counter-insurgency for those playing at home.

And by the way, the crazed email I posted here last week (in reaction to my op-ed that argued that Canada actually accrued some benefits for being in Afghanistan) also arrived in my mailbox at school on letterhead--the letter castigating me as an egghead moron and as a zionist twit and servant to the illuminati--of the Nationalist Party of Canada. Well, I am still confused--why is a white supremacist party (hence the racemixing reference in the letter) so opposed to continuing the mission in Afghanistan? It might not be in favour of it, but why get so exercised about it? This would seem to be an example of mission creep as foreign policy would not be the core concern of Canadian nationalists of this kind. Perhaps I am trying to put too much logic to their thought processes.