Occasionally there is a pang of regret about my choices because my retirement pay could have been higher and I might get better treatment (more fawning) when I go to the club on some bases where I am not known.  Still I am sure that any incremental increase in retirement pay would not come close to what I get with my current endeavors in the private sector, working on power plants and engineer snafus on ships and systems that I am quite familiar with.  I chose my game and I played my cards, and that is that.

That said, I knew and know men who pursued the combat role in both the Navy, the Marines, some in the Army, and a few Air Force.  I know quite a few Seals including a few still active.  I know the way they think and work just like I know how an engine works and responds in certain situations.

With that background, I will make a few remarks that I feel are salient.

1.  There is never a perfect war.
   
2.  The longer a war goes on the less perfect it becomes.  (That is why it takes longer.)
   
3.  The US is not much better than any other countries in not making mistakes in war.
   
4.  TV and the news cycle really make fighting an effective war difficult.
   

In engineering, we like to say.  There are 3 main factors in a project.

1.  time
   
2.  quality
   
3.  expense

Obama has chosen

1.  Time by setting a timetable.  Also he has chosen a
   
2.  quality - strategy of counter insurgency
   

Iraq was a tragic mistake that we are just getting out of.  I hope we can do a better job in Afghanistan which really is a much harder nut to crack.  If not for Pakistan next door, I would just say leave now.  

Personally, I would have chosen

3.  expense (lives of our men)  -first.
   
2.  quality (type of action -second
   
1.  time -last  

apparently, gen.mcchrystal's knowledge of the area is rather limited as well:

"Right now, it doesn't exist," said McChrystal, noting the perpetual state of civil war that has embroiled the country ever since the late 1970s. "Afghanistan is in some kind of post-apocalyptic nightmare."

if it weren't, he'd have known that afghanistan has been in pretty much a perpetual state of war/civil war, since roughly the 1870's. perhaps, this level of historical ignorance explains his abject failure there.

that we shouldn't have invaded in the first place is a given. that the post-victory planning was virtually non-existent is a crime. that a general, who publicly displays his almost total lack of knowledge of the country he was charged with civilizing, isn't currently in the brig, is a national tragedy.

i hope the general takes some time, from his very busy schedule, to personally apologize to the families of the soldiers who lost their lives, while he was in charge, due to his ineptitude as a leader.