"If General McClellan--oops, McKiernan--does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time."

Not to get into the whole "Who won the debate?" thing (except that, unfortunately, Palin had clearly won the debate about halfway through, so I gave up in despair and went to clip my toenails), but one would think that Afghanistan, fer chrissakes, is prominent enough on our national radar that you would bother getting the stuff right.

I know, I know: we've only been at war there for seven years. Some might say that this is not long enough to figure out who's who and what's what. If you're running for vice president, however, you might want to give it a shot:

Sarah Palin gets wrong both the commanding general in Afghanistan's name and position.The commanding general in Afghanistan didn't merely state that Surge tactics won't work! He also said that tribal involvement in the COIN strategy wouldn't work either! Absolutely right on infrastructure in Afghanistan though! Know what they really need in Afghanistan to enhance security? ROADS.

Palin thinks our commander in Afghanistan is someone named "McClellan." It is, I believe, McKiernan. And Palin is DEAD WRONG. He absolutely said that tribal involvement in Afghanistan COIN strategy would not work.

McKiernan: "I do think there's a role for traditional tribal authorities and tribal structure in Afghanistan, in the rural areas especially, to play in a community-based sense of security, of connection with the government, and of environmental considerations. But I think that has to be led, that tribal engagement, it has to be led by the Afghan government. I specifically tell my chain of command in ISAF [International Security Assistance Force, the name for NATO's mission in Afghanistan] that I don't want the military to be engaging the tribes to do that. It has to be through the Afghan government to do that. But of course, there's danger in that. There's always, "Is this particular tribe, is it being reached out to for all the right reasons?" That has to be watched very closely."

McKiernan: "First of all, please don't think that I'm saying there's no room for tribal engagement in Afghanistan, because I think it's very necessary. But I think it's much more complex environment of tribal linkages, and intertribal complexity than there is in Iraq. It's not as simple as taking the Sunni Awakening and doing the Pashtun Awakening in Afghanistan. It's much more complex than that."

It's a damned good thing that McClellan isn't our general in Afghanistan; Lincoln isn't around to send him dryly sarcastic notes before ultimately tossing him out on his butt for incompetence.