Posted by BW: Never ask the guy in the fight what the most important objective is, because it will invariably be the guy he is fighting. Strategy must be derived by those removed from the current fight, otherwise it will likely be skewed more by "urgency" rather than "importance."
Concur 100%, but I remain doubtful that cold logic will override passion in our national decision making strategy. You can't win elections based on the merit of your sound ideas, you have to drum up emotions and let the media fan the flames. When it gets difficult to maintan the emotional high about a particular course of action, then the counter movement whips into action and gradually builds momentum. We should have listened to George Washington and avoided the party system, it is most irrational system for governing ever designed next to communism.

posted by omarali50: I think that the US is not winning in Afghanistan, not because the war is so "complex". Its because at one level its really simple. As Bin Laden said: people will bet on the stronger horse. In this case, far too many people are betting that the taliban will win. Unless there is a decisive change in that assessment, its a self-fulfilling prophecy. It may be that in war nobody will tell you their whole plan, but its also true that in this case not seeing a plan keeps a lot of fence-sitters on the fence.
Please explain why "many" people think the Taliban is the stronger team? This somehow escapes the limits of my admittedly western bias towards relative combat power. Do people really see the Taliban as the stronger team or the team with the most endurance? Have the Taliban won any fights against coalition forces? I actually understand what you're writing, but please further explain what you mean by stronger team.