What do these have in common?

o The New York police department has for years been visiting services in mosques, all over the north east, taking notes, jotting down license plate numbers

o In Afghanistan we burn objectionable books, even the Koran

o And a sergeant walks down a rural street and murders 9 children and 7 adults probably mostly women

They all show that we hate Muslims.

Would Bloomberg and Kelley have staked out St. Patricks? Or a temple in Great Neck? The question answers itself.

Do the commanders understand that the democratic values we’re supposed to be demonstrating to the Afghans don’t include burning books?

Sadly, was it ever possible after 9/11 to expect the troops to do more than pay lip service to the concept that the Muslim religion has exactly the same validity as their own? If we wanted them to believe that, we would first have to do so ourselves. And we don’t.

It’s irrelevant whether this hatred is justified. What matters is that it dooms what we’re trying to do in Afghanistan. For us and for anyone who made the mistake of supporting us. A counter insurgency can’t succeed when you hate the population you’re trying to save.

For our Afghan policy to work it's not enough for us to proclaim our respect for the Muslim religion. We have to actually mean what we say. And we don't.

If the goal of our campaign was to kill Bin Laden, it's been accomplished. Let's leave.

If the goal was to intervene in the perpetual Afghan War to cause the Taliban to lose, that was never an achievable goal . Other people's civil wars have to remain other people's civil wars. Not ours. Let's leave.