Dahuyan:

What I keep coming back to is the fact that, when you burn it down, our civilian-military foreign engagement tools, tactics and strategies, are, in my opinion, out of kilter with the real world they are trying to engage with.

Personally, I see lots of points of positive engagements in so many places and circumstances, but they all seem to be roads not taken because they don't fit the tools we brought to the assignment.

Where is the evidence for success in any of the paths we are taking?

Now, Bob raised the issue of good vs. bad COIN, with much of the bad COIN seeming to fit within your model of contention--piecemeal, external meddling in matters outside our capabilities and proper sphere of engagement.

Let's help the marble companies in Jalalabad to improve the quality, accessibility and market linkages to broader markets, and help get nuts to markets that want nuts by assisting in overcoming the constraints of conflict (express flights to India?), but what does this have to do with the US military?

More prosperity will promote better governance and the ability to extend the writ of government, but only secondarily, and based on local choices and practical, sustainable local economics.

It's just silly to hear the DoS vs. DoD arguments about light and power for Kandahar. Who is going to pay for this if there is no local, national structure to operate and charge for services that folks can afford?

How did mission creep, or mission creeps, divert the Kandahar problem definitions away from the big picture (AWK) to tangential trinkets light street lighting? When was the US military or NG ever called in to wire a city? What is all this crap about? If AWK still rules Kandahar, which has no effective judges or justice, what are we really hoping to accomplish? Support for AWK?

The sad part of this is watching Obama set his clock for withdrawal based on the failures of DoD to deliver what it promised in October. He was trying to give them enough rope to tie up the bad guys, but it increasingly looks like they are getting tangled in the rope.

Alexander's skill was in cutting the Gordian Knot (usually by effective targeted battles, diplomacy and marriage). Where is an Alexander?

Bob's comment about "backing out," is, by default, what is in the cards, but why couldn't we do more with the resources we were given to leave a slightly better place?