McClatchy has a report on the investigation into the battle for Command Outpost Keating in Afghanistan which should infuriating to most Americans and, sad to say, is likely to be repeated in the months to come as President Obama ramps up the war there (emphasis mine):

“A U.S. military investigation into a battle last October in eastern Afghanistan that cost eight American soldiers their lives has concluded that the small outpost was worthless, the troops there didn’t understand their mission, and intelligence and air support were tied up elsewhere in the province.

…The report also says…that Combat Outpost Keating was located “deep in a bowl in Nuristan province, surrounded by high ground,” with limited protection from one observation post. By mid-2009, the report says, “there was no tactical or strategic value to holding the ground occupied by COP Keating,” which had been established to support a provincial political and economic reconstruction effort that never materialized.”

Do we never learn? Sending American soldiers to die in a country thousands of miles away, in order to prop up a puppet government which came to power by way of a fraudulent election, and is not supported by the people of that country. We’ve been there before.

George Santayana was right. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”