West Point split on the fate of counterinsurgency doctrine

[garbon]

as the Senior Nonlethal Advisor to the ANA Corps

That just sounds inevitably disappointing.  Should be deployed to the LAPD instead.

With his voice?

[Valmy]

Had to go into Afghanistan to stomp Al Qaeda. Now that Al Qaeda's in tatters and Osama's dead we should leave.

Actually we didn't need to go into Afghanistan to do that.  We did a great job using the Northern Alliance.  What followed, at least the military operations and the state building stuff, was the waste.

[Tonitrus]

Had to go into Afghanistan to stomp Al Qaeda. Now that Al Qaeda's in tatters and Osama's dead we should leave.

Actually we didn't need to go into Afghanistan to do that.  We did a great job using the Northern Alliance.  What followed, at least the military operations and the state building stuff, was the waste.

Yeah, but: ZOMG WE HAVE TO SUPPORT THE LIBERATION OF OPRESSED AFGHAN WOMENZ!!!11

[CountDeMoney]

We did a great job using the Northern Alliance. 

Meh, not really.

[mongers]

In some ways that's similar to the mistake the Soviets made, they took and held the main towns, airfields and road networks; more than enough to establish a friendly regime there and adequate from the American perspective to threaten Iran and the Gulf, yet then mission creep set in and they set out to defeat, the still somewhat lacklustre insurgency in the countryside. 
The rest is as 'they' say history, and oft repeated.