Inside Versailles on the Potomac, pressure is building on President Obama to reduce his promised withdrawal of combat troops in Afghanistan to a cosmetic level, and perhaps more to the point, to protect the defense budget from efforts to reduce the deficit. The two -- i.e., perpetual war and the defense budget -- are joined at the hip (as I explained here).  The Pentagon's mouthpieces in thinktanks are therefore dutifully filling the op-ed pages with fact-free arguments to justify continuing the ten year war unabated.

Read more: http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2011/06/08/afghan-sitrep-a-grunt-from-the-front-sounds-off/#ixzz1OjFohWpn