Many weak-minded Obama appeasers on the anti-war Right have defended the Afghanistan escalation by pointing out the sort of insanely vicious foreign-policy we would have today had McCain been elected president. It’s not much of an argument. But it is right.

Read McCain’s embarrassingly hawkish squawk over at Foreign Policy.

What I do not support, and what concerns me greatly, is the president’s decision to set an arbitrary date to begin withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan. A date for withdrawal sends exactly the wrong message to both our friends and our enemies — in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the entire region — all of whom currently doubt whether America is committed to winning this war. A withdrawal date only emboldens al Qaeda and the Taliban, while dispiriting our Afghan partners and making it less likely that they will risk their lives to take our side in this fight.

Yes of course. The solution is an endless war — a thousand years, if need be, remember — that can’t be won. You can’t lose if you don’t quit.