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The Daily Show on President Obama's Afghanistan speech:

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My own reaction to the speech was similar. Much of it was very Dubya-ish, but throughout the campaign Obama said that he would devote significantly more resources to the Afghanistan war, so any liberals out there who expected him to pull out were engaging in some wishful thinking.

There are no good options, and upon some reflection I think Obama is probably taking the least bad course. It's worthwhile to devote resources to try to improve the situation in Afghanistan, but it will never be ideal and what Obama acknowledges, which Bush never did in Iraq, is that our large-scale involvement will have to come to an end. Critics argue that by setting the flexible 2011 withdrawal date the Taliban will just be able to wait us out. Things don't work that way and here's a good explanation why.

Yesterday General McChrystal quoted Winston Churchill and said that in Afghanistan we are at "the end of the beginning." I see the utility in saying that to prepare the military for a difficult road ahead, but this strategy is really the beginning of the end, as it should be.