Taliban say Marine abuse tape won't hurt talks - Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/12/us-afghanistan-usa-urination-idUSTRE80A2D720120112

Good to know that not even urinating Marines can derail these peace talks.

The aim here for the United States is to get out of Afghanistan as quickly as possible without looking they are retreating. The Afghan regime is beyond redemtion, the war has gone on for ten years with no respite, and there is no hope of "victory" as the enemy is, and always has been, an idea, not a tangible foe. The Taliban on the other hand wants to survive to fight another day. The attacks into Pakistan have been effective in removing the competent and the willing from the Taliban's ranks, and having just a bunch of suicide bombers can accomplish some things but it can't win a war.

While I sypathize with the Afghan people, who will endure another three decades of war after we leave, we gave it our best shot and this was never a war you could win. The country is too ancient, complicated, and corrupt to make it into anything other than what it is. Hopefully it will sink back into an isolated violence, but to take our eye off of it for very long would be a mistake.