Brooks' Pie in the Sky Scenario in Afghanistan

David Brooks is visiting Afghanistan and thinks the war is salvageable and important for America to win:

Every element of my skepticism was reinforced during a six-day tour of the country. Yet the people who work here make an overwhelming case that Afghanistan can become a functional, terror-fighting society and that it is worth sending our sons and daughters into danger to achieve this.

(...)

After the trauma in Iraq, it would have been easy for the U.S. to withdraw into exhaustion and realism. Instead, President Obama is doubling down on the very principles that some dismiss as neocon fantasy: the idea that this nation has the capacity to use military and civilian power to promote democracy, nurture civil society and rebuild failed states.

Foreign policy experts can promote one doctrine or another, but this energetic and ambitious response — amid economic crisis and war weariness — says something profound about America’s DNA.

David: slap, slap, slap! Wake up, it's not 2001 anymore! We had this thinking then, unfortunately, eight years later we are still there with no end in sight. Take a look in the papers, the USA is broke and simply can't afford this anymore. How many people would like to have the trillion plus dollars spent on those wars back? Who wants to spend a trillion more continuing this folly? They don't have a trillion more dollars to spend.