Yoo-Gee-O

Our longest war, that continues to get longer every day despite the ceasefire, began 60 years ago when the North Koreans invaded our South Korean ally.

It was a difficult war that ended up in military stalemate despite Chinese intervention against us. It seemed like our first failure to win.

But despite the inconclusive ending and the long non-peace that followed, South Korea developed into a modern, Westernized society and American ally, under our protection and influence. North Korea has emerged as a starved, literally stunted, impoverished example of how not to create a country under Stalinist communism.

Despite the costs of three years of war and 57 years of ceasefire, what would the world look like if all of Korea was under the control of Pyongyang?

Given our staying power in South Korea (and Japan, and Western Europe), why anyone thinks that June 2011 means we start the big skedaddle out of Afghanistan is beyond me. If that is what the Taliban are hoping for--and even counting on--the hit on their morale when American troops continue to hunt them down and kill them throughout the latter half of 2011 and into 2012 will be significant.

Focus on the win. And this means, you, Vice President Biden and the State Department. You guys are on the job and McChrystal is out only because he failed to master the bureaucratic warfare weapons of memos, unauthorized policy-making in speeches, and leaks to the media that you guys used to attack him and his war effort.

In fifty years, if we play our cards right, we could find that our influence and example can do wonders for the Iraqis and Afghans.

UPDATE: I should add that President Obama surely knows that we won't just abandon Afghanistan starting in a year. So why remain ambiguous about it? Just say we'd love to leave as soon as we can, but that the soonest we can is when we defeat the Taliban. Sure, his base won't like it. What are they going to do? Vote for Hillary? Nader? Palin??

Contrast the current situation where our enemies and allies and Afghans apparently think we're getting ready to run when the gun goes off in a year with the determination of Bush to win in Iraq despite the obvious deadline of our surge that had to start ending once the surge brigades completed their 15 month tours since we had little ability--aside from general mobilization of reserves--to sustain that level of deployment. We were definitely going to lose at least 6 brigades yet the enemy in Iraq didn't believe we were getting ready to run because President Bush was viewed as stubbornly determined to win.