Obama's Meaningless Trip To Afghanistan

All about optics.

"We have reached a point where we are deciding who will be the last American to die in this war"

More here.

As usual with this president, Obama's trip to and speech from Afghanistan had way more to do with politics than any real substance. 

Seven thousand miles, one way, is a long journey to share war remarks with countrymen that he should have and could have shared back home many months ago. Despite the administration's best backgrounding sales efforts, the document he signed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a meaningless basic agreement to talk later about forging a real agreement. 

Nothing was essentially changed by what the media lovingly called his "secret trip" to the war zone, which was simply unannounced for security reasons. 

The remarks (Scroll down for the full text, as usual) were well-written, even with literary flourishes about a new dawn coming as the president spoke at 4 a.m. Afghan time. He wanted to avoid any sense of "Mission Accomplished." And at 11 minutes, blessedly brief for the Real Good Talker.