Iraq Surge "Success" No Help To Afghanistan

By Cernig

From The AP via the Guardian:

The top Marine general said Wednesday that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has rejected his proposal to shift Marine forces from Iraq to Afghanistan, reflecting in part the Bush administration's concern that recent security gains in Iraq are fragile and reversible.

``After discussion with the secretary and with my colleagues on the Joint Staff, there is a determination that right now the timing is not right to provide additional Marine forces to Afghanistan,'' Gen. James T. Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, told reporters at the Pentagon.

The Bush administration's concern? You wouldn't know it from listening to Bush himself, Cheney or their cheerleaders. Cheney today was particularly upbeat. Having finally shifted the goalposts far enough away from their original positions, they've already declared victory. Read that as "Gates and his officers' concern". They obviously aren't as certain that some Iraqi Harry Potter will pop up, wave his wand, yell "reconcilliation!" and it will magically arrive...astride a pony.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan continues to go South, with the Taliban having a controlling presence in half of the country. The original and still main front in the mis-named War on Terror continues to suffer because Bush and Cheney decided upon a war of aggression in search of phantom WMD's. They tried for two years to gain acceptance for another such spurious war in Iran before the recent NIE removed their causus belli. It's well past time to ask Petraeus' question about Iraq, only this time about Afghanistan. "How does it end?"