Obama's trip to Afghanistan

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"One little-noticed provision of the agreement Obama and Karzai signed Tuesday, however, is that American troops will remain in Afghanistan for not one, not two, not even three more years. They will be there for 12 more years, until 2024, helping. So, John McCain was correct after all about lengthy U.S. troop stationings.

In his speech last night the president noted the more than a half-million Americans who've served in Afghanistan. But in remarks that Obama wanted focused on an optimistic end to the conflict, he failed to mention the 1,957 Americans who've died there since 2001, 68% of them during his presidency. And 93 in the last 122 days.

Nor, as it turns out, could the politically-inclined president of the United States find room anywhere among his 1,556 words for the seven letters that could make his surges and all those sacrifices seem more worthwhile: "victory." "


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