Why is Afghanistan a quagmire?

In a word?  Pakistan.  Walter Russell Meade:

There is a flaming contradiction at the heart of President Obama’s Afghan war policy that threatens his strategy for safe withdrawal; the latest news from Pakistan suggests that the President now recognizes that something basic has to change.
Many readers find their eyes glazing over when it comes to yet more bad news from Pakistan, the “Islamic” republic which brings so little happiness to itself and its neighbors.  (One of life’s little mysteries: why more Muslims don’t demand that countries take the word “Islamic” out of their names until they cease to bring discredit upon it with their great honking failures of elementary justice?)
But depressing as the Pakistan news usually is, especially to those of us who know some of the idealistic and genuinely patriotic people in Pakistan who are working so hard to make things better, and who have a feel for the kind of place this beautiful country could some day become, you have to follow this story if you want to make sense of world news.  There are signs that US policy is moving toward a tipping point on Pakistan, one that would have major consequences for a lot of big issues, including the war in Afghanistan.

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