There were plenty of red faces at the Pentagon today as top military brass from the General Chiefs of Staff on down completely forgot they were engaged in a military conflict in Afghanistan. The embarrassing oversight came to light when a report on the US response to a Taliban offensive in Helmand involving airstrikes near Lashkar Gah caused confusion at the highest levels.

“In our defense, once a war’s being going on for a decade or more it becomes easy to forget. Especially when you already have Syria, Iraq, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, North Korea, and Russia to think about!”

This incident is being compared to one of the comic highlights of World War Two, when Adolf Hitler and the German High Command appeared to have no idea they were engaged in the Italian Campaign, thinking they only had the Eastern and Western Fronts and the Battle of the Atlantic to worry about. That led to a tense moment, until the Führer cracked a joke that had the room in stitches:

“Mein Gott, is there anywhere we’re not fighting?”

When President Biden got word that his top generals had also forgotten a war, he couldn’t resist the opportunity to poke some fun.

“If you keep forgetting the wars we’re engaged in I might just have to end them and cut your budget!”