By Bill Maher

President Obama giveth and he taketh away. Last fall he announced we wouldn’t be leaving Afghanistan by 2017 after all. Last week we learned from The Washington Post that, well, we’re never leaving. Now the talk is of leaving a more permanent residual force based on the South Korea model, because “there is a broad recognition in the Pentagon that building an effective Afghan army and police force will take a generation’s commitment, including billions of dollars a year in outside funding and constant support from thousands of foreign advisers on the ground.”

Obama campaigned on ending both wars, and repeatedly said he does not support “endless wars.” But now that Iraq’s military collapsed so soon after we left, it seems he doesn’t want Afghanistan’s army to do the same. Is this wise, or a costly fool’s errand with no end in sight, and precisely the “stupid shit” he pledged not to do?