I suggest that Mr Gates knows very well what the objective of the war in Afghanistan is - establishing and maintaining control of Central Asia - what in earlier times was called «the Great Game» and now is often referred to in terms of «Pipelinestan». But since a candid explanation of why the United States government is devoting enormous resources to killing people in a distant country would likely not, despite the best efforts of the corporate media, wake enthusiasm in a majority of the citizens of the US (who, after all, have to pay for it), other hopefull more publically palatable objectives must be found. Mr Gates fumbling would seem to show that this is no easy task, so he may perhaps be forgiven for not carrying it off terribly well….
I suggest that Mr Gates knows very well what the objective of the war in Afghanistan is - establishing and maintaining control of Central Asia - what in earlier times was called «the Great Game» and now is often referred to in terms of «Pipelinestan». But since a candid explanation of why the United States government is devoting enormous resources to killing people in a distant country would likely not, despite the best efforts of the corporate media, wake enthusiasm in a majority of the citizens of the US (who, after all, have to pay for it), other hopefull more publically palatable objectives must be found. Mr Gates fumbling would seem to show that this is no easy task, so he may perhaps be forgiven for not carrying it off terribly well….
Henri