Losing Two Fights at the Same Time

One of the lessons of 9/11 was that many of us were finally forced to learn about Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden -- and how the U.S. backed bin Laden's fight against the Soviets and then promptly ignored the country when the Soviets were repelled and Afghanistan was left in ruins.

So, after the 9/11 attacks and the U.S. military toppled the Taliban, what did President Genius do -- but essentially abandon Afghanistan. Oh, we're still there, but Afghanistan has been reduced to a city-state surrounded by lawless regions, because the U.S. once again left Afghanistan in ruins as President Genius diverted our resources and set us on the fatally foolhardy adventure in Iraq.

Now comes word that five U.S. soldiers were killed when a NATO helicopter was shot down. Additionally, per WaPo, this crash "was the 13th deadly helicopter incident involving U.S. troops since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2002." Emergency responders responding to the crash were ambushed as well. This crash occurred in the Helmand province, about which "[l]ocal officials in recent months have said the situation . . . is out of control."

November changed nothing.

We try to have a snarky blog thing going on over here, but this is all so deeply frustrating that we are out of snark right now.