Where we should have been

There are a number of reasons that the President's rhetoric of "finishing the job" should have applied to Afghanistan first. Instead, we quickly drew down soldiers to prepare for the invasion of an overhyped Iraq.

Despite that, everything seemed to have been going fairly well. Sure, we let Osama Bin Laden, the guy actually responsible for 9/11 get away as we focused on a guy who had nothing to do with the attacks, but things were relatively peaceful and elections seemed to go fairly well.

Now, however, violence is on the rise in Afghanistan:

An onslaught of grisly and sophisticated attacks since parliamentary elections in September has left Afghan and international officials concerned that Taliban guerrillas are obtaining support from abroad to carry out strikes that increasingly mimic insurgent tactics in Iraq.

The recent attacks -- including at least nine suicide bombings -- have shown unusual levels of coordination, technological knowledge and blood lust, according to officials. Although military forces and facilities have been the most common targets, religious leaders, judges, police officers and foreign reconstruction workers have also fallen prey to the violence.

Of course, we couldn't have stayed in Afghanistan forever, just like we can not remain in Iraq indefinitely. But another two years in a place like Afghanistan may have been able to flush out the members of Al Qaida that remained while maintaining stability and dealing with the problems of drug lords.

If things continue to deteriorate in Afghanistan, it will put Republicans and Bush in a tough position. Having the public perceive a failure on one front is hard enough, but two perceived failures in the War on Terror will almost doom the GOP to minority status for years - unless the Democrats screw it all up, too.