What will our expedition to Afghanistan teach us?

[Bob's World]

David,

I would add a few points a bit more fundamental and strategic in nature:

1. The form of legitimacy necessery for natural stability cannot be created or bestowed by foreign power, but rather must be bestowed by culturally accepted ways across the populace.

2. To maximize foreign influence one must first minimize foreign control.

3. Winning is not preserving some government in power or destroying some threat to the same. Winning is when the % of the population who perceive themselves as stakeholders in the solution of governance grows.