Afstan: Misleading headline of the day

From the Ottawa Citizen, top of front page:

Afghan mission 'doomed to fail'

The phrase in quotes appears nowhere, as the quotes suggest, in the Foreign Affairs article, "Saving Afghanistan", on which the story is based.

Indeed, a headline writer with a different agenda could have written this using a phrase that actually is in the article:

Battle for Afghanistan 'is still ours to lose'

But that would not suit the agenda of many of our journalists, who seem to be lusting for defeat.

The Foreign Affairs piece, by Barnett Rubin, is a critical, and good, assessment of the difficulties ahead in Afstan, an assessment similar to that of Anthony Cordesman covered here.

Victor Davis Hanson meanwhile points out the problems Western countries have fighting Islamic extremists:

(2) When losses mount, they are viewed differently by the two sides. Violent death and endemic poverty are commonplace in the Middle East, but not so in the West. We aim to avoid casualties in our warmaking; the Islamists want only to inflict them, whatever the cost to themselves.

(3) Everything our soldiers do is subject to Western jurisprudence and ethical censure. Americans distinguish soldiers from civilians to avoid collateral damage. Jihadists deliberately hide among women and children to ensure our restraint provides them sanctuary. Our utopian moral expectations can never be met; their very lack of such considerations means we are accustomed to rather than are outraged by their beheadings, kidnappings and suicide bombings.

(4) In the process of reconstruction, Americans are held responsible for keeping the electricity and water on to ensure life improves for Afghans and Iraqis. Jihadists win only by destroying such efforts. And it is always easier to tear down than to build...