Going into Afghanistan made a lot more sense than Iraq (other than bringing the oil in Iraq onto the market as UN sanctions were keeping most of it from being sold on the open market). The Taliban government was providing a safe haven for terrorist groups. Now it seems that we are muddled more in that country without making many gains, and more and more losing public support, both here and there. The biggest problem is trying to get the Afghan people to buy into our being there more. The more support we can get from the Afghan people, the easier job we would have in driving that faction out, but with each battle where innocent civilians die, the harder it is for them to accept us there as a positive thing. Especially when there seems to be no end in sight to the chaos and killing. So how do we change this?
I feel that Obama has to take the lead here. More important than increasing the troop levels there, he has to lead and not only sell it to people here in the US, he has to communicate and sell it to the Afghan population. I believe the biggest help he can give to the troops there in Afghanistan would be to convince the Afghan population to help by supporting us. The Taliban would have much less footing if they had less support from some of the citizens, and it would also be easier to get better intelligence from a more friendly population. And even though it would be a security nightmare, I feel the best way he could help provide that would be to go to Afghanistan and speak to the population.
First, he can tell them why we are there and what we are still doing there, that since we had to take out the old government, we have to stay and let a new government become established. That it would be right for us to just leave and let whatever group of people with the most guns decide what the government should be for everyone. He should let them know that we would want a government in place led by people of their choice, and that we are committed to leave as soon as their elected government is able to protect the citizens from bullying from armed discontents who want to impose their way on everyone by the end of their guns. He should give specific criteria to our leaving.
Second he really needs to convey sorrow for innocent civilians that are killed during battles, and convey that we are doing our best to avoid it. He then needs to try to focus some of the blame on the enemy for those deaths. They have hidden in civilian areas, and when they do so they are bringing the battle there in civilian areas. He then has commit to the Afghan people that he will not tolerate blatant soldier misconduct and will prosecute that.
If he goes to Afghanistan and speaks to the people, communicating those messages, I would think that would go a long way in the population having a more positive outlook about our being there. I think they would respect the fact that he went into a situation where he is taking a risk of his safety just to talk to them, and the unspoken message would be that they are important enough for him to come, risking his safety, and speak to them directly. And by providing specific criteria for our leaving could counteract part of the Taliban's claim that we are just trying to rule them like others have in the past, while associating some of the negative incidents in the war to Taliban actions and activities.
And while he was there, he should then take the time to talk to our troops, pledging to provide whatever help they need along with giving his support to them. He also should talk to them about making sure that they understand that they are ambassadors, and how the general population perceives them can influence the outcome in Afghanistan, and because of that, any blatant misconduct wouldn't be tolerated and would be prosecuted to the fullest, as it will have a negative impact on all soldiers.
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