P4 Desperately Pleas With the Brits

You know public opinion of the war in Afghanistan is reaching epic lows when you've got General Petraeus writing Op-Eds for British papers...but that seems to be where we are at. From The Times:

General Stan McChrystal, the Commander of Nato’s International Security Assistance Force, who has spent most of his career since 9/11 leading the US’s most elite counterterrorist element, the Joint Special Operations Command, is employing a comprehensive, counterinsurgency campaign. He is the first to recognise not just the extraordinary capabilities but also the limitations of counterterrorism forces in Afghanistan...
...If Cecil Rhodes was correct in his wonderful observation that “being an Englishman is the greatest prize in the lottery of life”, and I’m inclined to think that he was, then the second greatest prize in the lottery of life must be to be a friend of an Englishman, and based on that, the more than 230,000 men and women in uniform who work with your country’s finest day by day are very lucky indeed, as am I.

Damn, he even spelled recognize with an "s" to try and keep the Brits in the game. With NATO allies looking to pull out, you have to wonder if society has the will to combat extremism half way around the world while domestic economies are still in the toilet.