Just how wrong can Joe Biden be?

The estimable Rajiv Chandrasekaran points out that VP Biden recently said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, on Tues. Dec. 15, about  the American approach in Afghanistan that, “This is not a COIN strategy.”

This is going to be a surprise to General McChrystal, who thinks it is.

What a hot tranny mess! The fact of the matter is that, pretty much as usual, Biden doesn’t know what he is talking about. He has some vague notion of counterinsurgency as a massive, nation-wide effort. But word on the street is that he has been dozing during the briefings: In fact, McChrystal and his boss, the once-prominent Gen. David Petraeus, have explicitly said that the revamped approach is focused on only about 40 percent of Afghanistan, and that even within that area, outlying areas won’t be handled in a troop-intensive, classic counterinsurgency manner, but rather with focused counter-terror raids.

Request to NSC: Will someone over there have the VP and his posse get a brief  on counterinsurgency from the Special Operators on the Joint Staff before he shoots off his mouth again? I mean, do him a favor. 

Long-term benefit: I have long been struck at how consistently good Joe Biden and John Kerry have been as counterindicators of what their party, and their nation, should do. Age doesn’t always bring wisdom — sometimes it just brings seniority.

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