What have more than 4000 lives, $1 trillion, 250,000 dead Iraqis, etc., etc. accomplished in the “War on Terror?” According to today’s LA Times, absolutely nothing. al Qaeda is reconstituting itself not in Afghanistan which is what McBush would have you believe, but in nuclear-armed Pakistan, where the relationships and geopolitics are so complex, it might impossible for the US to prevent or retaliate against the next 9/11.

This needs to be Obama and the Democrat’s meme from now until November 4. At least it should be front and center in the Obama campaign–the Dem enablers in Congress have a more difficult task in unringing this bell and passing blame. Obama needs to reframe the argument. McBush wants to paint Obama as being naive and wrong about the surge. The real issue isn’t the surge but the larger context of the reckless decision to go into Iraq to begin with. That’s where Obama has real leverage, not only against McCain and the Pugs, but with the American people, the majority of whom are in violent agreement that Iraq was the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In the meantime, the Pakistan issue is a hell of a problem, one that’s most likely going to become all too real when the the next strike hits the “homeland.” After all how does one deal with a nation that is 1) nuclear, 2) a threat to India and the delicate balance of peace in the region, 3) has no incentive whatsoever to pay attention to anything we say?