It's long been clear that the Republican Party's strategy since Barack Obama became president was to obstruct and attack, no matter what the issue, no matter what the reality. But this video goes beyond any level of mendacity we've seen over the past 18 months.

Here's Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, on President Obama and the war in Afghanistan:

"Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama's choosing. This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in."... "It was the president who was trying to be cute by half by flipping a script demonizing Iraq, while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan. Well, if he's such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan."

Truly stunning.

But leaving aside Steele's utterly blatant lies, having the head of the Republican Party say that the war in Afghanistan is a failure and that it should never have been fought in the first place is undoubtedly news to the rest of his party.

What the family and friends of those who died or those who are still fighting there today think is, of course, another story.