by Chas Danner
Dexter Filkins says it's about the mess in Afghanistan, the war that's conspicuously absent from national debate:
You can make your own guesses about why the candidates have said so little about Afghanistan—their positions are virtually identical, the economy is more important, etc. My own guess: neither of them knows what to do about the place. In a mere twenty-eight months, the United States is scheduled to stop fighting, and every day brings new evidence that the Afghan state that is supposed to take over is a failing, decrepit enterprise.
Filkins goes on the detail new allegations of "corruption, favoritism, and incompetence" against some of the most powerful men in the country: the ministers of defense, the interior, and finance. His takeaway:
Why does all this matter to American voters? Look at this way: after eleven years, more than four-hundred billion dollars spent and two thousand Americans dead, this is what we’ve built: a deeply dysfunctional, predatory Afghan state that seems incapable of standing on its own—even when we’re there. What happens when we’re not? You can bet that, whoever the President is, he’ll be talking about it then.
The Dish 