Groundhog Day

There was a lot of gesticulating going on this morning in the WH press room (1, 2, 3, 4 ) as Hillary tried to put a positive spin on the AfPak situation with Zardari and Karzai in the house. The photo, however — from a recent NYT slideshow on American military strategy in the Afghan provinces — seems to sum up the dimension and obscurity of the task.

From slideshow :Cutting Off the Taliban’s Bankroll

(image: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times, caption: A base in Kandahar Province. The plan to send 20,000 Marines and soldiers into Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul Provinces this summer promises weeks and perhaps months of heavy fighting, as American officers expect the Taliban to vigorously defend what makes up the economic engine for the insurgency.)