Twofer: Mitt Romney Wins the Illinois Primary; and Maureen Dowd on Getting Out of Afghanistan!

Dear Commons Community,

Today is a travel day and I will be returning from my Middle States visit to Clarion University outside of Pittsburgh.

Two quick news comments.

First, Mitt Romney won the Illinois primary handily yesterday.   Romney led Santorum 46.7 percent to 35 percent, with 99 percent of the vote counted. One unnamed Romney advisor declared that it will now take an “act of God” for Rick Santorum to win the Republican presidential nomination.

Second, Maureen Dowd has a fine column in today’s New York Times entitled, Heart of Darkness, that examines our involvement in Afghanistan.  Her position:

“The impossible has happened in the past few weeks. A war that long ago reached its breaking point has gone mad, with violent episodes that seemed emblematic of the searing, mind-bending frustration on both sides after 10 years of fighting in a place where battle has been an occupation, and preoccupation, for centuries.”

And her conclusion:

The epitaph of our Sisyphean decade of two agonizing wars was written last year by then-Secretary of Defense Bob Gates: “Any future defense secretary who advises the president to send a big American land army into Asia, or into the Middle East or Africa, should have his head examined.”

We need to get out of Afghanistan as soon as possible.  Osama bin Laden is dead and it is clear that nation building is not our (American) forte.

Tony