Reply #1: Rall is more sanguine than I

[gratuitous]

My feeling is that we will pass seamlessly from the "No, Afghanistan is not an unwinnable quagmire" to "Of course Afghanistan is an unwinnable quagmire, everybody knows that!" After another spirited round of hippie punching during which the people who have been right about this all along will be publicly ridiculed, the Very Serious People of the establishment will conclude that the occupation of Afghanistan must continue or the United States risks looking foolish. After which they will all parade naked down Pennsylvania Avenue in solidarity, commenting on their sartorial finery. And before you get too prurient about that image, remember that I'm talking about the likes of David Broder and Dick Cheney.