With widespread electoral fraud adding to America's many troubles in the hotly debated and increasingly unpopular Afghan war, The New Republic's Michael Crowley noted today that the most difficult question about the war remains unanswered. Crowley unearthed a Washington Post column by Richard Holbrooke, who is now Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan, written during the early days of the 2008 presidential election. Holbrooke expressed doubt about our chances in the war he is not central to leading. Crowley quotes:

But even as the United States and its NATO allies move deeper into the cauldron, questions must be asked: When, and how, will the international community hand responsibility for Afghanistan back to its government? Will short-term success create a long-term trap for the United States and its allies, as the war becomes the longest in American history?

Crowley suggested that none of this has changed. "Nearly 18 months later, it's not clear that Holbrooke--or anyone else--has found good answers to any of those questions," he wrote. By digging up and repeating Holbrooke's question, Crowley himself implicitly asks: Did our "short-term success" in Afghanistan "trap" us into a war that has become "the longest in American history?"

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