On Wednesday, a suicide bomber hit an Aghan mosque holding a commemoration for a slain cleric who had opposed the Taliban. Over 30 were killed and scores injured.
“The reports out of Afghanistan are extremely worrying,” says Juan Cole. “It seems clear that the Taliban have learned from observing events in Iraq, and are developing a similar strategy of targetted bombings to destabilize the country and force US troops out.”
In switching his attention from Afghanistan to Iraq so abruptly in November, 2001, Bush opened a second front. Second fronts are always problematic, and sometimes they are fatal.
Stephen Biddle’s essay on the “Grand Strategy” of the Bush Administration is well worth downloading in pdf and reading carefully … [In] a blogging-style “shorter Biddle” … “Bush hasn’t said who the enemy is or how we could get at him without shooting ourselves in the foot big time.”
