A Christmas gift was Obama's War by Bob Woodward.

It's a boring read, the driest of detached reporting. It's also confusing, full of acronyms, names of people so numerous one can't keep track of them.

But, oh, it's chilling. Woodward does not comment. he simiply reports. But the picture that emerges is of a nation fighting (and losing) a war in Afghanistan - with no definition of what victory his defined - or defeat.

Establish a functioning democracy? It's agreed that;s fifty years away, at best.