What are we fighting for at this point, anyway? The Taliban are never going to surrender. [1] Joe Biden has said they are not the enemy, anyway. American forces have supervised the implementation of an Afghan constitution that enshrined Islamic law as the highest law of the land. Yet Islamic law is nothing like the democratic principles that we went into Afghanistan to defend (over here) and establish (over there). Sharia institutionalizes the oppression of women and non-Muslims, extinguishes the freedom of speech, and denies the freedom of conscience.

Was that what we were fighting for?

Nonetheless, America continues to pour out her blood and treasure for this repressive state, with no clear objective or mission in view other than a never-defined “victory.” No one has defined what victory would look like in Afghanistan. What would victory look like? What could it possibly ever have looked like? Has the Karzai regime ever allowed women to throw off their burqas and take their place in Afghan society as human beings equal in dignity to men?  Does the Karzai government, or any Afghan government that would follow it, ever intend to guarantee basic human rights to the tiny and ever-dwindling number of non-Muslims unfortunate enough to live within its borders?  Of course not.

No matter how long American troops stay in Afghanistan, no Afghan regime is ever going to do such things.

"U.S. Says Buildings Missing In Afghanistan," from [2] Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, January 11 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) says the United States is missing several buildings it thought it had built in Afghanistan.

John Sopko said on January 10 that he didn't know where the buildings were or even if they were ever built.

In his first public remarks since his July 2012 appointment by President Barack Obama, Sopko said corruption, inadequate planning, poor security, and the questionable sustainability of projects are among the challenges facing U.S. reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan....

Sopko said Washington spends some $28 million per day on rebuilding and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.