Robert Fisk is an English writer and journalist; he has been based mainly in Beirut for more than 30 years.
He holds more British and International Journalism awards than any other foreign correspondent.

today he observes....

'No way are they going to win.
The neocons say that "the graveyard of empire" is a cliché.
It is.
But it's also true.
The Afghan government is totally corrupted; its paid warlords – paid by Karzai and the Americans – ramp up the drugs trade and the fear of Afghan civilians'

Whether or not consensus can be achieved inside the White House, there are doubts across the political spectrum about the wisdom of sending more troops.

The word 'peace' is not used instead there is
'what it takes to get the mission done' from John Kerry, Democratic chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee

But, as he adds.....

"But the question is, given the absence of governance in Afghanistan and the fact that Al-Qaeda has been largely driven out of Afghanistan, exactly what that mission ought to be."

Peter Galbraith, the former United Nations deputy special representative to Afghanistan, who was sacked last month after speaking out on the election fraud, drew parallels with 1963, when Kennedy faced his dilemma over Vietnam.

"Obama clearly has doubts about sending more troops," he said. "It's his Kennedy moment — a young, untested president being pushed by all his military to send more troops and I hope he will make the same decision as Kennedy not to send more.

"How will you have success with a corrupt, ineffective government that most Afghans view as abusing power, and now compounding that is the illegitimacy of its election"