To believe that the war in Afghanistan will have anything but a disastrous end is to believe in the Tooth Fairy. Or, at least, that appears to be the almost inescapable conclusion that can be drawn from a careful reading of a very thoughtful column by Founder and CEO George Friedman of the respected private global intelligence organization Stratfor . It is well to begin by remembering the words of Lord Palmerston: ""Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests." " Dr. Friedman's less-than-sanguine assessment begins by noting that there were two immediate consequences to the recent bombing of the Pakistani outpost: Days after the Pakistanis closed their borders  to the passage of fuel and supplies for the NATO-led war effort in Afghanistan, for very different reasons the Russians threatened to close the alternative Russia-controlled Northern Distribution Network (NDN) . The dual threats are significant even if they don't materialize. If both...(Read Full Post)