THE DEAD-ENDER

A new New York Times poll reveals that opposition to the war in Afghanistan has increased from 53% to 69%. But, of course, an old pal is here to respond to those numbers with a resounding LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU:

Michael E. O'Hanlon, a military expert at the Brookings Institution who is close to American commanders in Afghanistan, said that the opinion polls reflected a lack of awareness of the current policy, which calls for slowly turning over portions of the country to Afghan security forces, like the southern provinces, where American troops have tamped down the violence.

"I honestly believe if more people understood that there is a strategy and intended sequence of events with an end in sight, they would be tolerant," Mr. O’Hanlon said. "The overall image of this war is of U.S. troops mired in quicksand and getting blown up and arbitrarily waiting until 2014 to come home. Of course you'd be against it."

No, Michael -- nobody except you and the rest of the Bush-era "Clap louder for all wars!" crowd cares anymore what the intent is, what the plan is. We see what the results are. Even if you didn't think there was much of a Bush strategy in Afghanistan after Tora, it's clear that there's been an Obama strategy and an "intended sequence of events" for three years, and it hasn't un-quagmired the quagmire. But why am I wasting my time arguing? You'll always be wrong, and you'll always be one of the media's go-to quote sources. We'll never be rid of you and your zombie talking points.