Clinton proclaimed on January 12, 2012 that she was in “total dismay” over the urination incident. She condemned the Marines’ “deplorable behavior” and went on to warn that “anyone, anyone, who is found to have participated or known about it…must be held fully accountable….” So there!

The change of approach is noteworthy. US personnel were directly involved in this incident. Obama’s “right war” in Afghanistan, as distinguished from the Cheney/Bush “wrong war” in Iraq, is in disarray and breaking bad—so bad that Washington is getting ready to sit down for peace talks. Marines acting like frat-house morons do not help matters.

What’s worse is when top officials in Washington such as H. R. Clinton and Peace Prize Obama act stupidly. This malfeasance has been going on for decades by all parties and is now routine. Washington is entirely responsible for putting the US Marines and NATO troops in Afghanistan and keeping them there far too long and for no good reason. We are now bogged down in a hopeless quagmire after al-Qaeda has evaporated from the country.

Retired Marine General James Jones, former National Security Advisor for Mr. Obama, stated in October 2009 that there were less than 100 al-Qaeda members in all of Afghanistan. US Marines and NATO troops are not fighting “terrorists” in Afghanistan. They are fighting a homegrown insurgency made up of ethnic Pashtuns who represent the country’s majority tribe and who regard the Karzai government as illegitimate and installed by infidels. This is both a civil and tribal war.

My guess is that the Marines do not understand why they are in Afghanistan—and neither do the policymakers at the White House, State Department, and Pentagon.