Our first war against an invisible enemy

Yesterday upon the stair

I met a man who wasn’t there

He wasn’t there again today

Oh, how I wish he’d go away

When I came home last night at three

The man was waiting there for me

But when I looked around the hall

I couldn’t see him there at all!

Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!

Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door

 

- William Hughes Mearn

Keith Koffler,  White House Dossier - White House Press Secretary Jay Carney went on at length Monday about how our goal in Afghanistan was to defeat al Qaeda. . .

This strategy would come as above-the-fold news to our soldiers, who think they are fighting the Taliban. But the Taliban are apparently not the enemy. Carney said nothing about fighting them.

A few excerpts:

What the President did when he reviewed U.S. policy in Afghanistan was insist that we focus our attention on what our absolute goals in the country should be, and prioritize them. And he made clear that the number-one priority, the reason why U.S. troops are in Afghanistan in the first place, is to disrupt, dismantle and ultimately defeat al Qaeda.

We can’t forget what the mission is, though, and the fact that the need to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda remains.

We will be unrelenting in our pursuit of al Qaeda and unrelenting in our efforts to remove leaders of al Qaeda from the battlefield.

Then Jake Tapper, who asks some good questions, asked some good questions.

Q When I interviewed then-CIA director Leon Panetta a couple years ago, he said there were fewer than 100 CIA — I mean, I’m sorry — he said there were fewer than 100 al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan. How many do we think are there now? About the same amount?

MR. CARNEY: I don’t have a specific number for you.

Q When is the last time U.S. troops in Afghanistan killed anybody associated with al Qaeda?

MR. CARNEY: Well, I would refer you to ISAF and the Defense Department for that. I don’t have that information.

This is certainly groundbreaking. We are actually fighting someone to defeat someone else. And the goal isn’t even to defeat the people we are fighting. And the people we really want to defeat aren’t even fighting.