Yes, Obama inherited this conflict, but he could have been the one to end it.

[kpete]

Failure of Military-Industrial Complex:
Won WW II Against Two Advanced Military Powers in 4 Years
But Can't Defeat Taliban in 8!
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Tue, 12/01/2009 - 10:31am.
BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

By Mark Karlin

On one hand, many of you, like I, will listen to President Obama at West Point as he announces the continuation of a war that will run past a decade in his term, and we will feel the profound sense of powerlessness that with change has come more of the same military failure of the Bush years.

This is something Shakespearean, like the Hundred Years' War, that defies any logic, common sense, or explanation about how the number one military power in the world can't defeat a ragtag group of tribal zealots.

Hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of American lives -- not to mention Afghani civilian deaths -- and the conflict in Afghanistan grows worse and more corrupt every day.

Now, the promise of change, President Obama, is chaneling the puppet of Dick Cheney -- George W. Bush -- with shades of Dick Nixon's "secret plan" to end the Vietnam War tossed in: this will be Obama's "exit plan."

Yes, Obama inherited this conflict, but he could have been the one to end it.

more:
http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/9931

[berni_mccoy]

1. We failed because of Bush. We will succeed because of Obama.

[Christa]

2. Succeed in what?

There is no way we can win this war, not even if we send a half a million more troops in.

One cannot fight an ideology. We are only creating more enemies and more targets on the backs of our soldiers.

[Xenotime]

3. You are correct. We would be better off just to make peace with them.

[berni_mccoy]

4. The article claims we failed to defeat the Taliban

We can defeat the Taliban by stabilizing Afghanistan and crippling Al'Qaeda's ability to function there.

[frazzled]

5. Obama (and all the other Dems) ran on refocusing on Afghanistan

The narrative was: Iraq was the bad war that needed to be ended. Afghanistan is the war we should have fought but didn't ... and we have to return to solving that problem now.

So it was never his intention to just come in and "end" it, without fixing it. Whatever one thinks of the escalation (and I am not keen on it), one can't say he ever was aiming to simply "end" it by withdrawing, as in Iraq.

[Ozymanithrax]

6. Comparing WWII when nations were at war and an insurrection or gurilla movement...

is fraut with peril.

How long has the IRA fought in Ireland as a whole and Northern Ireland? They go back in one form or another to the 1860's. A few of them are still fighting? This type of conflict can last for a long long time.