Which straw will be the last?

After more than 10 years of fighting, after the killing of Osama bin Laden, after the spending of billions of dollars, after the killing of thousands of Western invaders and thousands more Afghans, the US military is still in Afghanistan. So are troops from a handful of other countries still willing to hold the bully's coat.

What would it take to make the Americans leave Afghanistan? What would it take to convince the Obama government that the US is not wanted there? What would it take to show the Pentagon that they are fighting a war that is pointless, a war they cannot win?

Would Afghan rage over the burning of Qu'rans do it? How about the threat of reprisals for the massacre of women and children? Apparently those straws are not enough to break the back of the American camel.

Today, George Little, chief spokesthingy for the Pentagon -- fons et origio mali -- said the basic war strategy in Afghanistan will not change despite the mass killing of Afghan civilians, which he called "a deplorable but isolated incident". In other words, it wasn't part of the plan, but hey, shit happens.

Walt finds it significant that the Pentagon says the alleged killings were allegedly perpetrated by a US soldier whom the Pentagon won't name, even though he's in American custody.

The Unknown Soldier has been idenified, however, as a staff sergeant who has been in the military for 11 years. He is married with two children. He served three tours in Iraq and began his first deployment to Afghanistan in December. He is from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA, and was assigned to support a special operations unit of either Green Berets or Navy SEALs engaged in a "village stability operation" -- essentially a sanctioned, armed version of Neighbourhood Watch. Some neighbourhood. Some watch!

What the Pentagon is doing, you see, is stonewalling. Some Afghan officials and local villagers expressed doubt that a single soldier could have carried out all the killings and burned the bodies afterward. Some villagers also told officials there were multiple soldiers and heard shooting from different directions. But Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, another spokesman for the Coalition, insisted there was only one gunman.

So did Little Georgie Little, who told reporters there is "every indication" that the attack, was perpetrated by a single individual "acting on his own". [Is Lee Harvey Oswald really dead? Ed.] And Little refused to identify the soldier or provide other information about his unit, even though the information in my sixth paragraph has been known and published for more than 24 hours.

So it's deny, deny, deny...all the way. How much longer can this go on before the helicopter lands on the roof of the US embasssy to carry off the last Defenders of Democracy and Freedom?

Footnote: As I write this, the lamestream media are starting to talk of Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich having a change of heart as to American policy in Afghanistan. Maybe the mission needs to be re-evaluated, they're saying. Maybe it's time to withdraw, they're saying. Errr, didn't someone say that already? Oh yeah...it was Ron Paul who said it, ages ago, but he's not a serious candidate. Or so says the lamestream media.