b@70: The Taliban are NOT homeboys.

Maybe not now, but they were.

CIA supplied mujahideen (“freedom fighters” – very much insurgents) with stinger missiles to aid the resistance movement against the Soviets in the 1980′s under Reagan (going through the door opened by Brzezinski under Carter.) After Soviets were expelled, mujahideen proved poor at governing leading to several years of additional violence. With the aid of Pakistan, Mullah Omar formed a radical splinter group from the infighting mujahideen that called itself the Taliban.

Invaders or insurgents? You decide. The entire history of the region supports the metastasis thesis of Islamic evolution. Blink and the landscape shifts.

Which is why simplistic doctrines, like Palin’s and Powell’s, offer little of relevance to the threats presented by conditions in the ME. One could go on and on about war vs non-war, short-term vs long-term objectives, but the end-game is how best to facilitate a path towards stability that has to start somewhere if the culture is constitutionally capable of mastering the art of peace. Current indicators are not particularly positive.

I feel for President Bush (sometimes.) He had his eye well focused on Pakistan, which will require a unpleasant decisions, but his administration went out on the sour note provided by Paulson and the Wall St boys. He never saw that one coming.