Now, with newly minted President Biden weighing his Afghan options – and under immense bipartisan insider pressure to stay-put or even ramp-up – a simple question leaps forth: Does Amtrak Joe really wish to be the guy to needlessly bury the streak along with some poor kid from Wilmington or Scranton?

Look, despite his 40-plus years of experience – spent more engaged than most – on foreign affairs, Biden's hardly been an expert-sophisticate. By mostly his own admission, Joe's generally a gut-player, prone to the "feels," and ever-susceptible to emotional arguments. This has its limits, obviously – but isn't always all bad. Especially when the issue at hand – not squandering another soldier's life in a futile, and long ago lost, crusade – is actually simpler than Washington's winless expert class hopes to confuse us into believing. These jargon-jugglers play buzzword-bingo – resurrecting long-passed pro-war platitudes – to gaslight an increasing Afghan adventure-skeptical American public.