Osama bin Laden is believed to be in the Tora Bora cave complex about 30 miles west of the Khyber Pass but he's still on the loose, even though we've been told from time to time that he's dead. It wouldn't make any difference, one way or the other, as he is just an individual and his message is stronger than mortal flesh. The former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikstan are just north of Afghanistan, making it relatively easy for the Russians to get supplies and soldiers into Afghanistan and yet the Russians had to leave Afghanistan to its own devices. The USA was playing the usual game against the other super-power but it's also a fact that the emerging super-power, China, shares a border with the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan and please don't forget that Pakistan is also in the picture when it comes to "hot pursuit" of the Taliban.

Yes, indeed, the Taliban's treatment of women is atrocious but there are many places in the world where women are treated as chattels and where girls have to suffer genital mutilation for "traditional" reasons. I don't know of any plan for an invasion of those regions to spread democracy or to fight for the dignity of women.

This whole B.O. trip to the Middle East and Europe is nothing more

than a charade. All show and little substance.

What I'd like to know, is who is paying/footing the bill for this

photo-op, dog and pony show???

Since it is considered as part of his 'campaign strategy' then

it better be coming out of his Campaign Funds.

When Obama or McCain travel to their various engagements, it comes out of their campaign funds. When Bush (or any other presient, for that matter) flies on Air Force One to attend a fundraiser, the taxpayers foot the bill.

Mr. al-Maliki spent 20 years in Syria and has close connections with the Shia regime in Iran. Now, out of the goodness of his heart, he's advising an American presidential candidate on when it would be expedient for American forces to leave Iraq.

Americans deposed Saddam Hussein who was undoubtedly a tyrant but, and this should not be forgotten, Iraq was a secular state under Saddam H. and had an excellent medical system which recruited doctors and health-workers from all over the world. Women could dress anyway they wished in Saddam's Iraq. It will be interesting to see how secular Iraq will be once al-Maliki and his friends have unbridled power and how democracy will flourish.

The Afghanistan/Pakistan project will, almost certainly, show the world another example of the United States once again biting off more than it can chew and, this time, the consequences for the whole world could be far, far worse.

But this time, I think he is a little off-base. Afghanistan is where our resources should have been focused from square one. If we had done that, we might now be referring to the Taliban in the past tense.

As others have pointed out, we're not out to colonize Afghanistan (okay, maybe Bush thought he could do it to some extent), as previous powers tried to do.

we have been told it ravaged ... how and why would the Afghans tolerate, give shelter to these people?

The Taliban "won" the civil war by providing genuine security of the roads to the caravans it protected. The war lords were notorious for demanding payment for protection and then hijacking the same caravans themselves or walking away when the caravans were attacked.

The caravans (trucks mostly as I understand it) are transporting the #1 crop, virtually the sole source of income for much of Afghanistan -- opium. As with all farmers, the crop is a bulk affair, the income a once or twice a year influx with all of the middle men taking their cut, the farmer hopefully "making ends meet" to keep body and soul together for another year, but at the modest income of someone far down the ladder in the heroin production cycle.

The Afghans can't ask NATO or the central government for protection against hijackers and marauders, the warlords are notoriously unreliable... enter the Taliban (or at least that's how it worked pre-09/11).

Our/NATO/Karzai's attempts at opium eradication have been shelved repeatedly -- the farmers have no real alternative crops and a ready and willing marked for this one. Agressive opium eradication might well devastate all this diligent "nation building" ....

Major military operations to eradicate the Taliban and/or go hunting for Bin Laden could do worse...

Catch-22.

FWIW, Afghanistan is due to elections this fall and then Karzai will be up for reelection next year (CIA Fact Book).

The correction should not widen the injury.

Obama must catch up to his own intentions.

There are significant numbers of would be allies all over the region.

But you have to get it right before you move.

War warps the vision.

Forcing every population into friend or foe too narrowly won't succeed.

Every nation must be respected.

The knowledge is available.

Enough hawk talk has been uttered.

First, do no harm.

Can we please get someone other than Cole/Kamiya to write about the middle east? Is Cole under the impression that Obama propose abandoning Afghanistan? To the Taliban? This is bad politics in the US and poor international strategy. Obama never proposed conquering Afghanistan like the Soviets tried, he has proposed helping the democratically elected government. However flawed Karzai might be, I am certain that at least half of the population, the female half, are thrilled to be out from under the thumb of the Taliban.

Also, we do have to deal with OBL, ignoring him prior to 9/11 didn't work very well. Bush wasted our military in Iraq, that doesn't mean that Obama will make the same errors in Afghanistan. Articulating an international policy that calls for the abandonment of our commitments in Afghanistan would cost Obama the election, and would relegate the people of the region to the living hell of fundamentalist Islam. But I guess that Cole doesn't care what happens to people, as long as he can keep his anti-colonialist street cred. For him, Islamic governments can do no wrong, unless they work with the US or Israel.

Fringe players like Cole/Kamiya are a joke, exclusively featuring them on an influential site like Salon decreases the influence of the site.