Just wanted to say that I think your analysis is spot-on. There is a great danger in having our understanding of the geopolitical situation reduced by the pundits to little nuggets of perceived truth like "McCain was right about the surge." It's both far more complex than that -- the situation in Iraq changes by the day, and will look very different by 1/20/09 than it does now -- while at the same time obscuring a couple of simple truths -- that the war in Iraq was wrong to begin with, and it's still wrong, while the war in Afghanistan must be won at all costs.

It's so aggravating to think that this could all have been avoided had the Reagan administration engaged in the kind of nation-building in Afghanistan that the Bush administration is now undertaking in Iraq -- while still ignoring Afghanistan.