Wampum

Via Billmon, we learn that the Taliban is mounting an offensive in Afghanistan:

In the past three months, the United States has carried out 340 airstrikes in Afghanistan, twice the number in Iraq.

Officials told The Washington Post the military has been responding aggressively to Taliban aggression.
"I think the Taliban realize they have a window to act," said Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, who commands the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. "The enemy is working against a window that he knows is closing."

The Taliban has been especially active in southern Afghanistan in recent weeks. The toll includes the deaths of 300 civilians, insurgents and soldiers and the burning of 200 schools.

How can it be that we have not yet defested the Taliban?

It is not like we haven't had enough time. The war in Afghanistan started in October of 2001 and has been on-going for 54 months. The US involvement in World War II lasted from December 7, 1941 through September 2, 1945, a total of 45 months. If it took less than four years to defeat Nazi Germany and Japan, why have we not been able to defeat a rag tag group like the Taliban in nearly five years?

It is not like we do not have the resources. Since FY 2002, we have spent (pdf) more than $1.7 trillion on defense. With about 131 million individual tax returns being filed annually, that works out to about $13,000 per taxpayer. Looked at another way, that is about $57,000 per Afghani.

It is not like President Bush did not promise to deal with the Taliban. On September 20, 2001, in a speech to the Joint Houses of Congress and the nation, President Bush said the following:

And tonight, the United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban: Deliver to United States authorities all the leaders of al Qaeda who hide in your land... Close immediately and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, and hand over every terrorist, and every person in their support structure, to appropriate authorities... Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer operating.

These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion... The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate.

The President made clear what that fate would be:

We will direct every resource at our command -- every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence, and every necessary weapon of war -- to the disruption and to the defeat of the global terror network... I will not forget this wound to our country or those who inflicted it. I will not yield; I will not rest...

Given that Mr. Bush has had the time and resources to deal with the Taliban, and given that he promised them the same "dead or alive" treatment as the terrorists, and given that he promised not to yield or rest, how can the Taliban now be on the offensive?

There is no good answer to that question. Here are some bad ones.

Part of the answer is attention deficit disorder. Mr. Bush became distracted by Iraq and did not devote the necessary resources and priority to finishing what he started in Afghanistan. So much for not resting or yeilding.

A second part of the answer is that the war in Afghanistan was supported by virtually all Democrats. It did not provide Karl Rove with the needed wedge for the 2002 elections. Not being a political imperative, Afghanistan was not a policy imperative. The only real imperative known to this administration is political effectiveness.

Finally, there is simple incompetence. This administration rarely does anything other than politics well and Afghanistan is no exception.