Updated: Max Boot plays the blame game with Afghanistan

Today, Max Boot contributes to the latest neocon oeuvre: Why Everything We've Advocated has Turned to Shit But It's Everyone's Fault But Ours.

Earlier this week, I predicted a full-court press to shift blame for the piss-poor situation in Afghanistan onto anything and everything but poorly conceived U.S. militarism. Mr. Boot proves the point; he kindly asks that you not mention that the jolly little war in Iraq on which he and his fellow armchair warriors were so keen has resulted in not one but two rump states in which extremists are proliferating.

He starts off his column with a soupçon of historical revisionism, claiming that Afghanistan's descent was wholly unpredictable in, say, March of 2003:

Not long ago, Afghanistan appeared to be doing much better than Iraq in spite of getting much less American help. But in the last year, a surge in Taliban activity has endangered the hard-won achievements of the 2001-2004 period. Roadside bombings and suicide attacks are up. Parts of the countryside are in the Taliban's grip. Opium production is hitting record levels. Already this year coalition forces have suffered more fatalities in Afghanistan (163) than they did in all of 2005 (130) to say nothing of 2004 (58).