Refreshing debate in the Senate on A-stan

I am pleased and surprised that Sen. Kerry (he's on a roll I think!) convened this discussion in the Senate foreign relations committee about Afghanistan featuring Rory Stewart, one of my favorite strategic thinkers today: "Kerry Opens Vigorous Debate on Afghanistan."

For my money, the best quote came from Stewart:

Stewart disagreed, contending that the United States tended to
underestimate Afghan and Pakistani will to make decisions in their own interests
and overestimated the impact of Afghanistan to Pakistani stability. “It’s very
dangerous to mount an argument about Afghanistan based on Pakistan,” he said,
comparing weak, poor Afghanistan to a cat and nuclear-armed Pakistan to a tiger.
“We’re beating the cat,” Stewart continued, “and when you say, ‘Why are you
beating the cat?’ you say, ‘It’s a cat-tiger strategy.’ But you’re beating the
cat because you don’t know what to do about the tiger.”