http://surgeeditorials.typepad.com/surge-editorials/2009/10/why-its-impossible-to-support-the-war-in-afghanistan-.html

10/31/2009
Why it's impossible to support the war in Afghanistan

It's been eight years since the United States invaded Afghanistan. After all these years many Americans have lost sight of the alleged purpose of our invasion - to hunt for Osamabin Laden and al Qaeda.

What has also been lost is any government inquiry whatsoever into the accuracy of the "smoking gun" evidence that the Bush Administration presented as the final justification for invading Afghanistan - the peculiar "Osama bin Laden confession video".

Released on December 13, 2001, the videotape of bin Laden and associates taking pleasure in the 9/11 attack was seen around the world - over and over again. I remember the 24 hour news channels playing the same scenes practically non-stop while the talking heads told their audiences that this was absolute proof that the United States invasion of Afghanistan a few months earlier on October 7, 2001 was the right action.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/Print/2008/112308a.html

Gates and the Urge to Surge

By Ray McGovern
November 23, 2008

It may become a biennial ritual. Every two years, if the commander-in-chief (or the commander-in-chief-elect) says he wants to throw more troops into an unwinnable war for no clear reason other than his political advantage, panderer-in-chief Robert Gates will shout “Outstanding!”

Never mind what the commanders in the field are saying — much less the troops who will die.

After meeting in Canada on Friday with counterparts from countries with troops in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Gates emphasized to reporters there is a shared interest in “surging as many forces as we can” into Afghanistan before the elections there in late September 2009.

At the concluding news conference, Gates again drove home the point, “It’s important that we have a surge of forces.”

Basking in the alleged success of the Iraq “surge,” Gates knows a winning word when he hears one – whether the facts are with him or not.

Source: Reuters

Apr. 23 - With the resignation last month of Admiral William Fallon, President Bush is now free to replace him with someone more open to military engagement with Iran.

As CENTCOM is the headquarters for all operations in the Middle East, having it headed by someone who is hawkish towards Iran is of the utmost importance to the neocon warmongers who want nothing more than to attack Iran before leaving office next January.