Apparently Russia was in Afghanistan for 110 months. Apparently the US is fast closing in on our 110 month “anniversary” with Afghanistan. It would seem a wise time for introspection about what that means.
I sniffed around the interwebs looking for both verification of this fact and possibly some reaction to it. Alas the press is still busy either dry humping their hand picked leader or engaged in diversion. Oh look it’s shiny…over here look this way…
Where was I? Oh yeah… History, repeating itself and all that. Or not?
Presumably Bush Jr. would have been hounded relentlessly for such an anniversary by a rabid press. Which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. For Obama I’m seeing nothing about Afghanistan but the same thing I’ve been seeing for years; rosy predictions for about 18 months in the future. The thing about 18 months in the future is that technically it never arrives and therefore it’s unaccountable.
So is this “anniversary” something or is it nothing?
(Note: The 103 month anniversary, marking a deployment longer than that of the U.S. in Vietnam, passed this June. I’m shocked that I never saw a story about that milestone either. What gives?)
Follow up: In the paper I saw a nice long AP lead that mentioned the anniversary. No reaction from anyone else but was on 11/26 which is Black Friday. Probably the most “un-newsy” (if that’s a word) day of the year. It’s a particular day when even I wouldn’t expect weighty deliberations to crowd out the ads for cheap kitchen appliances and plastic decorations to hang on the eaves. So it didn’t pass unmentioned even if it passed little noticed.