NYTimes now reports that they have obtained a copy of the US Army’s "official history of the conflict" in Afghanistan. Here are some key exceprts from the article now up on the Times' website:
Internal Army Report Finds Early Missteps in Afghanistan
...once the Taliban fell, the Pentagon often seemed ill-prepared and slow-footed in shifting from a purely military mission to a largely peacekeeping and nation-building one, fresh details in the history indicate.
"Even after the capture of Kabul and Kandahar," the historians write, "there was no major planning initiated to create long-term political, social and economic stability in Afghanistan. In fact, the message from senior D.O.D officials in Washington was for the U.S. military to avoid such efforts." ...
and note where they point the finger for the problems:
...The historians say resistance to providing more robust resources to Afghanistan had three sources in the White House and the Pentagon.
First, President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had criticized using the military for peacekeeping and reconstruction in the Balkans during the 1990s. As a result, "nation building" carried a derogatory connotation for many senior military officials, even though American forces were being asked to fill gaping voids in the Afghan government after the Taliban’s fall...
and as if we didn't know, and you weren't warned repeatedly beforehand:
....Third, the invasion of Iraq was siphoning away resources. After the invasion started in March 2003, the history says, the United States clearly "had a very limited ability to increase its forces" in Afghanistan.
And this is the manly man's hand that you, Dick Cheney, hold from which to criticise Obama and HIS administration for their method of prosecuting the war on terror?
Oh man Dick, I would keep my mouth shut about fighting the war on terror if I were YOU! Sadly, no doubt, you will take the opportunity to tell us how this report actually vindicates your clueless prosecution of the Afghan war. But since your 4-time-draft-defering, no relatives EVER in harms way, never had resources withheld from your own military engagements caged-pheasant release-hunting-turkey shooting sportman's (Ha!), but sometimes I shoot my fellow hunters in the face ASS ever suffered for it- I sure hope not.