Impossible goals | The flaws in Obama’s Afghan plan are right there in the open
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Journalists don't need to dig far to find the self-deception at the heart of Obama's Afghan surge: A little Googling is all it takes to see that his hopes for the Afghan forces are absurdly high.

George Wilson’s column | We’ve said what we’re going to do in Afghanistan. Now, how will the Taliban and al Qaida respond?
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President Obama is going to start hearing this question every day for a long time: ‘Why are we still fighting in Afghanistan when we have so many other problems at home?’

Not much press coverage, either | 'There hasn't been two seconds of intelligent discussion about living standards in Afghanistan' ASK THIS The poverty in Afghanistan is almost beyond imagining. Thirty Afghans die from TB every day; life expectancy is 43 years; per capita income is $426; only 13% have access to sanitary drinking water; conditions for women are brutal. If Obama plans to address these issues, he's keeping it secret. But without addressing them, can stepped-up American military involvement succeed? Or is it bound to fail?

Which way in Afghanistan? | Tough questions for Obama -- from Obama
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The last time a president sent more troops to war while claiming his commitment wasn't open-ended, a young senator from Illinois responded with the proper skepticism and excellent questions.

Base Building | We may be leaving Iraq, but we're not going far
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An American military building boom yet to be seriously scrutinized, analyzed, or assessed is underway in the Middle East, writes Nick Turse. Call it Operation Enduring Presence.

Priced out of the market | How much does an active duty soldier cost per year, and can we afford it?
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The all-volunteer armed forces are said to be so expensive that they either will get smaller or go broke. Columnist George Wilson says leaders need to be asked how they plan to deal with rapidly rising, unaffordable costs.

‘My daddy’s not dead yet’ | What's the exit strategy? Is this a war without end?
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Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican, regrets playing go-along politics in voting to authorize the Iraq war in 2002. ’I profess to be a man of faith,’ he told George C. Wilson, ‘but I didn’t vote my conscience.’ Jones says there will be no ‘go-along’ vote for him on sending additional troops to Afghanistan.

Learning from history | Questions that need to be asked about Afghanistan ASK THIS Congress and the press didn’t ask presidents, military leaders or secretaries of state hard questions that might have led them to avoid the quagmires in Vietnam and Iraq, writes George C. Wilson, and he poses some hard questions that need to be asked – and answered – about Afghanistan.

Subsidies for the highest paid | For executive pay, how much is too much?
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In the past, Nancy Pelosi supported a bill to disallow business tax deductions for the portion of executive pay exceeding 25 times that of a firm's lowest paid employees. These days average pay for chief executives can be hundreds of times higher than the lowest paid workers. Would Pelosi back a similar bill today?

How much is too much? | It’s time to re-examine the Three Strikes Law
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Most of those sentenced under California’s tough, 15-year-old system are drug users, not violent criminals. In addition, at a time when the state is going broke, long-term incarceration is very expensive—$1.225 million per inmate over 25 years.

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