I think both of you (William Owen and Tequila) have a point. And I dont see why the two are mutually exclusive? Of course the US has to back the Afghan regime (with or without Karzai) in a civil war. Isnt that what they are doing right now? (clumsily and less than efficiently, so William does have a point; they need to be able to say what they are doing and not get lost in Bull#### all the time; which is why I mentioned imperial decay).
And when you are supporting a govt against an insurgent force, isnt that "COIN"?
The fact is, the US may end up doing a LOT of what it is doing right now even if it was official policy to take William's advice in toto. The difference would be in internal clarity and the ability to cut through bull####. Unfortunately, this may not be easy to fix because it may be a system-wide failure. I was a pediatrician before I became an academic subspecialist, and I can tell you, sometimes the system just seems incapable of using common sense. Once some BS idea like "foster parents are ALWAYS superior to orphanages" or "national health is a socialist nightmare" (to mention two wrong beliefs from two different ends of the spectrum) gets in place, it generates its own corrupt constituency and its own fog of bull#### and somteimes nothing can make it change except system-wide collapse. This sounds completely irrelevant to our discussion, but I assure you, it is the same general phenomenon.....And I am afraid "freedom lovers" can be fooled or co-opted by corruption and BS just as easily as "do-gooders" ...