The Long War Revisited

See this commentary by a war correspondent, written for Politics Daily, on the topic of "the Long War." David Wood speaks of his five visits to Afghanistan, since 2002. He reports the military today is frantically building very permanent bases there, in spite of all the talk about withdrawals happening by mid-2011. He says:

In Washington, the operative presidential declaration is that in July 2011 the troop withdrawal will commence because they will be increasingly unnecessary in the war. In Kandahar, meanwhile, so much construction is underway that KAF (Kandahar Air Field) has its own cement factory that churns out concrete 24/7.

In other words, if you thought we would be leaving Afghanistan anytime soon, be disabused of that idea. We are likely to have troops there for the next decade or more. The President will have to come up with a fig leaf to cover the gap between his promises and reality.