It's amusing for Mickey Kaus to be picking on anybody's post-9/11 predictions, when he himself stated:
I suspect the story will be off the evening news by Thanksgiving -- a denial, in a warped way, of the attackers' disruptive goal.
In this case Kaus is picking on a Times reporter's use of the word "quagmire" in association with Afghanistan. Of course, a quick search reveals that similar sentiments were expressed in news and analysis pieces in The Columbus Dispatch, The Washington Post, USA Today, the Baltimore Sun, etc...
Until the capture of Mazar-e-Sharif, this view of Afghanistan was quite prevalent, if not universal, and it's ridiculous to somehow link it back to the NYT. That capture was the watershed moment for changes in perceptions of progress in the conflict. Doubts about the ease of doing this were also expressed throughout most of the media.
Clinton's cock needed to be replaced, and the Krugman/Times/Raines axis of evil is its replacement.
