From Metafilter: "With election season in the US, it's probably hard to get a less than Gung-ho picture of the war in Afghanistan, but this Spiegel Online article paints a dark picture. 'Pessimism about the situation has never been so high.' High level NATO commanders are using phrases like 'Doomed to Fail,' 'We are trapped,' 'repeating the same mistakes as the Soviets', military victory 'neither feasible nor supportable,' 'downward spiral.' For some it is so dark the only beacon of light would be peace talks with the Taliban."