Polls

Polls show that the American people are getting tired of the war in Afghanistan. I believe the reason for this is a misunderstanding between the civilian leadership and the military leadership. It is up to the President to set out the strategy and the military to determine the tactics. For example, suppose the President would say to the generals that we want to destroy the poppy fields and encourage the farmers to grow food products. The generals would then respond by saying we can do that and we will need 50,000 troops and two years. The failure in Viet Nam was a lack of strategy and we are in the same situation in Afghanistan. Obama told the generals what he wanted them to do and they said they need 60,000 troops and Obama said you can have 30,000 and they accepted that. They should have come back to the President and said if you are only sending half what we need then you must change your strategy. McChrystal tried to do this but the President would not meet privately with him for six months so he went ahead with the 30,000.
This same thing happened in Viet Nam. General Westmoreland asked for 100,000 troops and President Johnson sent 36,000 and the general accepted that. Unless the strategy was changed this was a mistake and we seem to be making the same mistake again.