As Global Pulse reports this week, US media attention towards Afghanistan has spiked in response to President Obama's recent call for the deployment of an additional 17,000 troops to central Asia. But does this new attention reflect lessons learned from Iraq and other recent US interventions?

In Henry Kissinger's case, his Op-ed in today's Washington Post applies creaky Cold War "containment" metaphors to the Afghan conflict, with the spread of "jihadism" across Asia standing in for communism in a previous era. At Time's Swampland, Joe Klein voices similar doomsday fears of "terrorist infestations" but with a focus on Pakistan, which he claims holds the true key to regional stability.

Meanwhile at Informed Comment, Juan Cole spotlights Al Jazeera English's report on the diverse groups that the US considers to be the "Taliban" in Afghanistan, a conflation that could hinder efforts to improve local tribal and militia cooperation with US forces. Cole further questions how the US plans to restore its military supply route to Afghanistan given current tense relations with nearly every neighboring country.

Will the new US media and military focus on Afghanistan produce a more wise and sensible policy? As always, let us know your comments in the episode section above.