This is the season when folks talk about Ghosts of Christmas Past. This classic cartoon [for a larger view, click here] that updates the idea and gives it contemporary relevance:

The Crushing Legacy of Bush and Cheney by Joe Conason

Now it’s “Obama’s war,” but we should not ignore the events that led us to this moment and the inexplicable decisions of the Bush administration.

From now on, the headlines about Afghanistan will be slugged “Obama’s War,” and perhaps that is fair enough given the president’s many endorsements of what he has called a war of necessity. It would be much less fair, however, to ignore the events that led us to this moment, when any choice offers no great guarantee of progress and no small prospect of trouble.

Those events began with the inexplicable decision by officials of the previous administration to allow Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and other ranking leaders of al-Qaida to escape from Afghanistan to Pakistan in December 2001. At the time, as a new Senate report on the battle of Tora Bora recalls, Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, and Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, decided not to augment the tiny contingent of special operations troops on the ground with sufficient force to capture or kill b in Laden and his deputies. They later claimed to be worried that “too many American troops in Afghanistan would create an anti-American backlash and fuel a widespread insurgency,” a rationale that can only evoke bitter laughter now. READ FULL STORY HERE

• JIM WALLIS: WE NEEDED A NEW AFGHAN STRATEGY BUT THIS AIN’T IT

President Obama’s Secret: Only 100 al Qaeda Now in Afghanistan

One Thousand U.S. Soldiers and $300 Million for Every One al Qaeda Fighter By RICHARD ESPOSITO, MATTHEW COLE and BRIAN ROSS

President Barack Obama’s description Tuesday of the al Qaeda “cancer” in that country left out one key fact: U.S. intelligence officials have concluded there are only about 100 al Qaeda fighters in the entire country.

REACTION TO OBAMA ESCALATION IN PAKISTAN PRESS

US, UK media welcome surge, Asia wary

Japanese daily says Obama’s decision entails extreme risks that can make or break future of administration ?* NYT says ‘we don’t know if US and NATO troops will be enough to turn war around’?

News Busters: LARRY KING ON ALL SIDES OF OBAMA ESCALATION

MEDIA MATTERS TAKES ON WP’S RICHAED COHEN

Reuter: IRAQI BACKER OF US POLICY THROWS A SHOE

An Iraqi reporter imprisoned for throwing his shoes at President George W. Bush found himself on the receiving end of a similar footwear attack in Paris Tuesday.

Muntazer al-Zaidi, whose flare-up against Bush last December turned into a symbol of Iraqi anger, was speaking at a news conference to promote his campaign for victims of the war in Iraq when a man in the audience hurled a shoe at him. It hit the wall next to his head and a scuffle ensued in the audience, television footage showed. French media said the attacker was an exiled Iraqi journalist who spoke in defense of U.S. policy, accusing Zaidi of siding with a dictatorship, before throwing his shoe.

Zaidi’s own outburst summed up the feelings of many Iraqis about the U.S. military invasion of their country and the ensuing bloodshed and sectarian killing. Millions of people around the world saw images of him shouting “this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog,” during a news conference by the former U.S. leader, before throwing his shoes at him.