Not a pacifist here. In fact, I'd say that my position on armed conflict is almost identical to Obama's. I'm not against all wars, I'm against dumb wars. No sane person rejoices over the prospect of violence, but it is sometimes the only practical response.

I, too, was in favor of going into Afghanistan, as were most of the "lefties" in my circle of friends. What's more, I still believe that in the right hands and with the right motives, we could have done a world of good there.

It's easy to forget after the disasters of the last six years, but things were going quite well there, even with The Wrecking Crew in charge, until they dropped the ball (well, actually, they threw it away intentionally). So of course the Afghan people have taken their affairs in their own hands and pretty much gone back to what they were doing before we arrived, except that now they have even less reason to trust us than they did before. This is the opium-funded mess that Bush has bequeathed to the next administration.

The lesson to be drawn from the Bush foreign policy is that it's just as easy to make enemies of your potential allies through disinterest and neglect as it is through conquest and pillage.