David Kilcullen talks about Afghanistan.

If we do this [Presidential transition] the “normal” way, it will be too late.

We are being both out-fought and out-governed for four basic reasons:

(1) We have failed to secure the Afghan people.
(2) We have failed to deal with the Pakistani sanctuary ...
(3) The Afghan government has not delivered legitimate, good governance ...
(4) Neither we nor the Afghans are organized, staffed, or resourced to do [what needs to be done].

It makes no sense to pull troops out of Iraq just so we can go and re-commit them somewhere else.

Pakistan is extremely important; indeed, Pakistan (rather than either Afghanistan or Iraq) is the central front of world terrorism. But nation-building in Pakistan is a twenty to thirty year project, minimum, if indeed it proves possible at all.

Local tribal leaders have told me that ninety per cent of the people we call Taliban could be reconcilable under some circumstances, but that many are terrified of what the Quetta shura and other extremists associated with the old Taliban regime might do to them if they tried to reconcile.