By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Osama bin Laden's new bellicose rant against the United States and President Barack Obama is frustratingly familiar.

Bin Laden in an audiotape attacks a U.S. leader for being "powerless" when it comes to dealing with the war on terror, this time in Afghanistan.

There's a frustratingly large amount of truth to what the al-Qaida leader says on that point.

And bin Laden claims Obama is no different from past presidents, such as George W. Bush.

That's true, in part, because Obama has continued to support the war in Afghanistan, a war that has had far too little progress in reshaping that country since it began in 2001, shortly after 9/11.

The challenge from bin Laden:

"You are waging a hopeless and losing war for the benefit of others, a war the end of which is not visible on the horizon."

The bin Laden tapes have become expected events around the 9/11 anniversary.

This one stings a bit, because bin Laden is correct to portray our efforts in Afghanistan as being bogged down in a fight that is leaving U.S. war dead strewn on the field of battle.