Wednesday, October 18, 2006

"And this time, we really mean it. Really."


Apparently, a real, honest-to-God, cross-my-heart "tipping point" has been reached in Afghanistan:

"Military successes over the Taliban in recent months have opened a crucial six-month “window of opportunity” to prove to Afghans in the south that long-promised reconstruction and security can be delivered, NATO's commander in Afghanistan said Tuesday..."

There are so many potential Tom Friedman jokes here, it's impossible to pick just one.

WELL, OK, I LIED. I like this one.

3 comments:

Mike said...

Gee, its October. In Afghanistan, all fighting usually stops during the winter until the spring "fighting season" begins again.

We have experienced this before, the Americans have and the Russians did through out the 80s.

So the next 6 months will have virtually no fighting anyway. Gosh, self-fufilling prophesy? How stupid do these guys think we are?

(Steve Coll details the seasonal nature of Afghanistan warfare quite well in "Ghost Wars")

M@ said...

That last link ("this one") is not only the greatest hammering of Friedman of all time, it's one of the greatest book reviews of all time. If there's a Friedman reader left on this earth, it's because they haven't read Taibbi's piece yet.

Cheryl said...

Taibbi's review is magnificent. I had to stop drinking my tea for fear I would laugh it out thru my nose.