By.....dun? Those syllables sound familiar.

Remember Joe Biden? Crusty old fella, was in the Senate for a epoch, was often seen standing behind Barry during the campaign last year? Apparently he isn't dead, he's just the Vice-President. Who knew? It turns out that not only is he alive (or possibly in a state of walking death) but he doesn't think it's such a great idea to escalate that whole war thingy in Afghanistan. And his shambling zombie corpse is trying to convince people of the same idea.

From the moment they took office, Mr. Biden has been Mr. Obama’s in-house pessimist on Afghanistan, the strongest voice against further escalation of American forces there and the leading doubter of the president’s strategy. It was a role that may have been lonely at first, but has attracted more company inside the White House as Mr. Obama rethinks the strategy he unveiled just seven months ago.

For Mr. Biden, a longtime senator who prided himself on his experience in foreign relations, the role represents an evolution in his own thinking, a shift from his days as a liberal hawk advocating for American involvement in Afghanistan. Month by month, year by year, the story of Mr. Biden’s disenchantment with the Afghan government, and by extension with the engagement there, mirrors America’s slow but steady turn against the war, with just 37 percent supporting more troops in last week’s CBS News poll.

No faith in the Afghan government? Did you see how they stole that election and got the international community to not give a shit? That's skill. That's talent. Still Joe is worried about McChrystal's plan to add 68,000 troops as part of a counter-insurgent campaign. Which is fine, when you start to hear phrases like "a real counter-insurgency strategy is not possible in Afghanistan", you tend to get second thoughts about the Graveyard of Empires. Joey wants to instead train the Afghans to fight for themselves (novel idea!) and go after al Qaeda's mountain bases along the border with Predator drones and special forces.

Naaah. Sounds too smart and doesn't give us a sufficient war boner. No, we'll be the ones that finally win a large scale battle in the mountains of Afghanistan. Every other nation that tried it didn't have what we have: a desire to win. Sorry Joe, doesn't look like you'll win this fight. But if you keep pushing you can probably get the administration to do some bizarre half-measure in between the two opposite plans. Because isn't doing the middle version of two extreme plans of action what always works? Especially in war?