The real issue in Afghanistan was missed and the window of opportunity was short. The real issue is the residents are illiterate and have no work. Illiterate and jobless people often listen and follow radical people. Shortly after the Taliban leadership was removed, an all out effort needed to be made on putting people to work in Afghanistan. Not in the style that we wasted here in the USA internally over the past 24 months, but in a manner such as building a ring road tying the 6 countries that surround Afghanistan into a transportation hub, returning Afghanistan back to agriculture exports of raisins and wheat of which it was one of the biggest exporters in the 1960s-1970s and a massive campaign to teach people to read.

History clearly shows us people don't prefer to fight when they have some change in their pocket and food in their belly. The vast majority of radical Muslim fighters that are not students of Islam are unemployed males from the ages of 14-38 and have a sense of hopelessness. If one can find a way to eliminate the sense of hopelessness, the vast majority of suicide bombers and fighters become unavailable.

Kind of late now to get people to work in Afghanistan. The Warlords (another name for big businessmen that have a paramilitary group to protect their business interests) have taken over the entire economic base of the country- even in its dealings with the USA, NATO and ISAF. They are not going to give it back.

Not sure any General can fix Afghanistan. The last and final hope would be to seal the border with Pakistan and kill anyone no matter what that tries to cross the border. I can go on and on, I was a military planner in Afganistan and the situation is not pretty.