America has been trashing about in Afghanistan for the past nine years without any hint of "success" - except, of course, that billions of dollars are just flowing into the coffers of those who profit from this occupation. Assigning a new general to head this insanity will not bring "victory" to the Americans, nor will it bring peace to the Afghan people, because too much money is being made by those who profit from this bloodshed. The whole motivation for American occupations of Afghanistan (and Iraq) is profit - only the naive American people still believe the foolish Bush propaganda that they are offering up the lives and limbs of their loved ones to fight a "war on terror". There is no "war on terror". This is just a slogan concocted by the Bush White House to justify their invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Afghan disaster marks the end of NATO's first(and last) out of theater operations. The EU states want to spend less on defense. An inevitable product of a contraction across Europe in public expenditure. The people of Europe don't want to drag along behind another imperial adventure of the USA(against Iran,against China,against anyone). But the European states must still secure their defenses. Hence the only solution(one minimizes expenditure in both blood and gold) is a proper security agreement between all the European states and Russia. The advantages for both are clear. The continent has no option but to take charge of its own destiny.

Success is just around the corner, couple of trillions more in cash, perhaps couple of hundred thousands more troops to secure the civilian population, build and train quisling forces, drill water wells, build schools etc. and victory will be at hand, Afghans will be Hailing Mary just like their bros from AmeriKa.

Does the change of the US general-in-command really matter? Hardly. If the hearts of most Afgans have not been won, and will not be, why keep killing the innocence? Halt the dirty war! Once and for all!

Nato should quickly appoint General Retreatus as the new chief in Afghanistan. His mission should be two fold. One to stop the hemorrhage of the economies of the 2 U's - USA and UK. Two to make a big U-turn and drive his troops home.