Okay, I guess this is the part where I jump in and "cheerlead."

This was stupid. We've seen riots and violence over the burning/destruction of the Quran before. What made us think this would be any different? You'd think we learned our lessen by now. We could've, at least, been bothered enough with the business to do it in secret somewhere if burning was the only option.

As for it being a member of the ASF that shot the advisers, there have been worries for years that we were training the Taliban, the HN, radicals, Islamists, guerrillas, or what-have-you. This shouldn't come as a surprise.

This guy deserves to be caught, tried, and shot. No doubt about it. However, I think the greater point here is that this is yet another moment to seriously rethink our strategy and goals in Afghanistan that we are going to let pass-by.

I don't hold anything against our troops on the ground. But, I seriously question that sanity of our political and military leaders. An Afghanistan with a centralized, democratic government is a pipe-dream. In fact, if one reads over the history of Afghanistan, there are very few instances--save the area being dominated by an outside power--that there has ever been a unified Afghanistan. Further, even those instances are generally short-lived due to the inherent tribal nature of the peoples there. What do we really hope to accomplish that thousands of years of history couldn't?

Under this umbrella, I think we also need to dump Karzai. Now. Many--if not most--Afghans consider his re-election a fraud and his government corrupt. Hell, we acknowledge much of the corruption. However, we backed the election results. Further, we've left democratic opposition groups out of the negotiations with the Taliban. What has come out of this? The United Front has, well, re-united against both the Taliban and--to a lesser degree--the Karzai government. While I'm fine with there being no such thing as a unified Afghanistan. I'm not fine with there being a fractured one. And, it seems that is where it is heading. I recognize the distinction may not mean much to others, but I think there is a difference between disunity and fracture. Disunity is the general history of Afghanistan. Fracture is the state of the "country" that sparked the civil wars of the 1990s. Once again, it appears that past is prologue.

I know some here think that bombing them into the stone age will "teach them a lesson in respect" or whatever. But, I seriously question that claim. This isn't 1940s' Japan. Japan in the '40s was an modern, unified country. Afghanistan is anything but that. What would pacify one would embolden the other.

We've spent over a decade of blood and treasure spinning our wheels over there trying to build a country that doesn't really exist. It is time to call it quits. Osama is dead. Al-Qaida has been disrupted and dismantled within Afghan "borders." What else do we feel we need to accomplish there?

This was a tragedy, but it was a tragedy that needn't happen.