Afghanistan

As Iraq recedes in the news cycle, Afghanistan is enjoying a bit of a resurgence. Today the WSJ tells me Holbrooke is going to approach Iran to seek cooperation in "combating" the drug trade there. For crying out loud, I'm so sick of the same failed approaches when there's such a simple solution. Buy the damned poppies from the farmers and either use them to make legal morphine or just burn them. It's the cheapest way to get rid of them, creates no bad will among the local populace and in fact would boost their economy by pumping some money into it. Then they could figure out their own reconstruction projects.

Meanwhile, military strategy on the terrorism front seems to be in a bit of flux as well. Last week, reports had a visibly unhappy Petraeus leaving the White House after a meeting to discuss withdrawal of troops and a deployment of extra troops to Afghanistan was delayed after Obama asked for details on the endgame and didn't like the answer.

The last link via mikevotes who has a more positive view of the restructuring of the National Security Council than I do. He thinks it "could restore some balance to the way the body works." I hope he's right. (Scroll down at his blog to see a stunning photo of the Austrailian wild fires that's as beautiful as it is frightening.)

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