For the love of God, shut up

MANIFESTO

I realize that the Xanax Queen's approval rating is about three times her husband's and that she might serve as a potentially more welcome ambassador in Afghanistan than he, but surely the US can do better than this drivel:

"It's really not that fair," [the First Lady] told reporters before meeting [Afghan President Hamid Karzai]. "I think it's undermining, frankly, to blame him for a lot of the things that may or may not be his fault. He inherited — just by becoming president — a country that's been totally devastated. It is very, very difficult when you have al-Qaida and Taliban all over the borders and making incursions into Afghanistan, and it's intimidating for everyone."

Such is the level of American diplomacy these days—insights delivered with all the sophistication of a querulous twelve-year-old.

And regarding Afghanistan's "progress," which Laura the Lump is trying to promote on her Mideast sojourn, it's worth noting that

[i]n 2003, 197,680 acres of land was used to cultivate poppy. By 2007, that number had jumped to 476,900 acres. Opium production topped 9,000 tons, enough to make over 880 tons of heroin. The country now accounts for 93 percent of world production, the U.N. says.

Karzai became president in 2004. You're doing a heck of a job, Hamid.