War without end

Two news items confirm, on the eighth anniversary of the Afghan war, that the occupation will continue indefinitely, i.e. forever, barring another, bigger and better war.

The first, that Obama has ruled out reducing troop levels, means that there can be no change in the 'goals' of the war, and thus no change in strategy. It means that the 40,000 plus escalation demanded requested by McChrystal will be approved, because as the war continues down the tubes, its failure would all fall on Obama. This way, the blame is shared.

The second, reported by Howie Klein (h/t Greenwald), is that the House democrats have passed a bill that will take defense spending off of PAYGO, the requirement that new budget increases must be funded by higher taxes or reduced spending elsewhere. Bush's technique was the supplemental bills for the wars that were off the budget. Obama promised to end that practice, but has now adopted a new technique that has exactly the same effect. Talk about change!