Sarge:

The way you avoid the problem is not to break the thing entirely -- eg, in Iraq, go in, get Hussein, and turn the keys over to Tariq Aziz. With a stern warning about not making us come back again.
Right. What you are indicating is roads not travelled which, had they known what they were going to face, probably should have been considered. Oh, for planning based on relevant facts and reasonable expectations.

I would not be so quick, however, to say anything different about Afghanistan. We had the option of immediately turning it over to the King to sort out the future through a Grand Loya Jirga.

Our brilliant crew of half-assed constitution writers jumped in, though, and mucked it up.

Same bunch as in Iraq--mostly trying to have their cake and eat it too. Let's invade/not invade, but my friend can make a fortune in oil contracts if only we stay around and muck with their country..... (insert the appropriate DoS names (but it was not Cheney or Bush or anybody at DoD)).

Ken: Sorry we just couldn't survive without you.

In grad school, even the most impassioned liberal instructors explained that Great Society (Johnson and Nixon) only came about as domestic cover for the war. Cynical?

Custis: Last Sunday, my WP had 90 pictures of all those young soldiers no longer with us. Pissed me off royally, just like the ones did from Iraq in 2007.

Difference was that a call went out for people to actually come and change things. I don't know about you folks, but my civ/DoS mission in Nov 2007 was explicitly stated as transfer US responsibilities fast, and set us up for exit. And that's what we did.

Afghanistan just looks like a log-rolling mission. Everybody knows what is broken, but covering a lot of asses. Give me that revised Iraq problem definition/mission for Afghanistan, and I'll work my ass off to get us out of that one, too.

I really feel for you and my friends on the ground who just can't get a link between reality and the grand strategy boys.

Stay safe.