The endgame begins. London waits on Washington. Washington waits on Barack Obama. Obama waits on Kabul. Kabul waits on history. The clarion of military bravura in Afghanistan sounds an ever more uncertain note. It is obvious that this war is starting to stink, but no one dares say so. Everyone waits. Hillary Clinton even takes time off for diplomacy's favourite round of golf, telling Irishmen or Palestinians how to behave themselves.
Reports from Washington suggest a battle royal is being fought, as happens at a turning point in every war. It is between the loss-cutters and the one-last-pushers. The cast is familiar. The soldiers, led by the third general in a year to guide America's Afghan war, Stanley McChrystal, are doing what soldiers always do. They are asking for more troops, either 40,000 more (a 60% rise on the present American deployment) or preferably 80,000 more. This is coupled with our old friend, a "re-engineered" counter-insurgency strategy to win hearts and minds on the ground.
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