Bill:

As to any negative implications as to military, my experience was with Gen. Hertling and his 1AD staff at MND-North in 2007/8.

Most outsiders could never have imagined such a crack, and deeply experienced batch of folks seriously pursuing and accomplishing the objectives assigned to them, and pushing hard past any inconsistencies presented.

I recall a conference at Spiecher in early 2008 where then-MG Hertling flew the Baghdad Embassy staff up to explain the plan to stabilize/reconstruct Iraq, so that his staff could support it. When they realized there was none, all of us set about creating on for Northern Iraq---and implementing it with high-level support to bypass the obvious obstacles.

Read the Wiki cables from Salah ad Din, for example, and you will see measurable reports of goods returning to markets, and pricing dropping. People were getting back to life from the safer routes and repaired bridges courtesy of MND-North with Iraqi cooperation and security. Still dangerous, but functioning. This is not rocket science.

Our mission (forget about the window-dressing) was what Gen Odierno is espousing today---to create enough stability to rapidly turn Iraq over to the Iraqis an rapidly get us out of the middle of the road, both for ours and Iraq's sake. Iraq's infrastructure is, today, as bad as its politics, but fixing them is now, properly, up to Iraqis.

Afghanistan, however, is a different kettle of fish from start to finish. My concern has always been that, first, there is no viable plan, and, second, the options for a commander to create his own and successfully implement it were non-existent.

The flaw was in the strategy (or lack thereof), and no amount of tactics, however well considered, could, on a material and sustainable basis, overcome it.

If, as was the case in Iraq, Ambassador Crocker put out a call for civilian troubleshooters to come and cut the Gordian Knot, I would be there, ponce again, as soon as all the silly pre-deployment details were overcome, but even he has not done that in Afghanistan, with ominous suggestions that, in effect, there really is no Gordian Knot that the US can cut.

It is a very different problem set, in large part because of the lack of indigenous resources and capabilities, not actually enhanced during our tenure (as Stewart notes) despite Herculean efforts by those on the ground.