Unavoidable Ugliness in Afghanistan - The National Interest

The challenger is not resting his campaign on foreign policy, and he evidently does not have in mind a policy on Afghanistan that would be an alternative to that of President Obama. Nonetheless, there still is a war going on there, in which Americans are still dying (about two thousand to date). Whoever is elected president will face the leadership task of getting the American people to come to terms with an ugly reality in Afghanistan. - Unavoidable Ugliness in Afghanistan - Paul R. Pillar