Politically it looks like an example of the US deciding to throw a random country against the wall and getting its arse kicked instead - as it did in Vietnam.
If you look at history there probably arent two worse countries to throw against the wall than Vietnam and Afghanistan. Both have constantly been invaded and occupied for the last milenium, and have a history of resistance of any and all occupiers as part of their national myth. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
National Review: Jonah Goldberg quoting Michael Ledeen in 2002 ... here is the bedrock tenet of the Ledeen Doctrine in more or less his own words: "Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business." That's at least how I remember Michael phrasing it at a speech at the American Enterprise Institute about a decade ago
