Killing a woman is like killing a bird.

What did I take away from Obama's speech? We can't 'win' the way the previous administration dreamed we would (indeed, we're not even going to delude ourselves into believing that's possible), and we can't leave. The situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan is precarious, to put it mildly, and we do care what happens there. But we need to be realistic about what we can achieve in Afghanistan. The new outlook for Afghanistan that Obama outlined last night no longer entertains any pretensions of being a righteous mission. It's realistic--depressingly so. Heartbreakingly so.

We're not there on a charity mission but are there to advance what we think are our interests. That's why some of the most oppressive governments in the Middle East will continue to be our most stalwart allies. GLENN GREENWALD.

The sad fact is that in Afghanistan, killing a woman is like killing a bird. The United States has tried to justify its occupation with rhetoric about "liberating" Afghan women, but we remain caged in our country, without access to justice and still ruled by women-hating criminals. Fundamentalists still preach that "a woman should be in her house or in the grave." In most places it is still not safe for a woman to appear in public uncovered, or to walk on the street without a male relative. Girls are still sold into marriage. Rape goes unpunished every day. MALALAI JOYA.

But Obama is more realistic about our limitations or at least more honest about his intentions than the previous administration when he acknowledges that we can't afford to define our national security interests so broadly that these interests include installing free and democratic governments by force. That isn't working for us. We're no good at it. Humanitarian interventions in moments of crisis are one thing, but we can't force countries to act and think along certain lines. We can't afford to engage in nation-building in Afghanistan: we can't afford this in terms of money, people, time, patience, energy, will, imagination or even attention. Maybe when the fighting dies down, maybe when the population is secure, maybe when the troops start pulling out, maybe when (if) we're not stretched so thin--maybe then other avenues to ensuring human rights in Afghanistan will open themselves to us. We can only hope.

We can only hope the surge works and that the US and our partners (however much we wish we had better partners in Afghanistan) become the big brand-name in security, food, water, education and Not Getting Blown To Bits in the eyes of the Afghan people, or else there's really very little optimism to be had.