I thought admitting the corruption of the Karzai government and parallels to Vietnam were acts of masochism? As recently as last year Hitchens said the Taliban was "doomed to defeat?" So I guess we're about six months from Hitchens doing a regretful essay saying the mission in Afghanistan is lost...remember his essay throwing in the towel in January 2007 at the beginning of the Iraq surge strategy? I guess this is what happens when you spend eight years supporting a mission without serious criticism or an interest to actually repair a failed state. We shouldn't abandon Afghanistan and allow it to collapse but the first step to success is to admit reality. It's nice to see Hitchens is at least starting to include facts in his essays about Afghanistan.