Yes, but what's good for Blackwater is good for...

Lots of pointed letters that Pravda is even printing.

I like Boyd Hight's, a former deputy assistant secretary of state during the Carter administration.

...There is no nation to build.

Afghanistan is a loosely aligned collection of tribal constituencies. Its people are largely illiterate. The so-called central government does not control the countryside and is corrupt.

How are Americans in a relatively short period of time going to create from this raw material a state capable of ensuring its own security?

We are also fighting the wrong enemy. The Taliban, no matter how alien to our values, pose no threat to the United States. Al Qaeda has no significant current presence in Afghanistan.

In short, we are sending a lot of soldiers at enormous cost to fight an enemy that is somewhere else, with the de facto mission of propping up a narco-state. This makes no sense.

There you go again, wanting policy to be run by logic instead of profit for those with the Right Stuff.