Afghanistan, Finally

This is more of an essay of my thoughts and feelings about Afghanistan:

1. The President has decided to sent 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. General McChrystal asked for 40,000 more troops.

If President Obama endorses General McChrystal's tactics--which Obama seems to, seeing as how he keeps McChrystal as the general in charge--why is President Obama only sending 3/4 of the troops that the general says he needs? Why is the president only supporting the general three-fourths of what is needed?

Now, there are many different ideas of exactly what needs to be done in Afghanistan--but if you say you want a certain thing done--why don't you give it your best shot?

2. What exactly is the Taliban to us? A friend? A threat? If the President isn't sure what this group bodes for our national security--how can he make a reasonable plan to deal with the Taliban?

3. On another aspect of this whole thing--how can the President pretend that the Afghani elections are fair and democratic? If you base your plans on faulty premises--you get faulty plans.

4. Why the three month delay in announcing the exact same strategy that President Obama announced in March? And in August? If this is so important to our national security--why the pondering and dithering to reach the exact same conclusions?

5. Why only 18 months? Again, if this is of such urgency, why is President Obama giving this only one and one-half years--especially since it takes a while just to get troops over to Afghanistan, and get things going. I thought we were talking about the safety of our country?

In short, I am more than a bit confused about all this. Again, there are many different ideas and proposals about what should be done in Afghanistan--and it's a very complicated conundrum. But if this is an issue of national security, then I would like to see a well-thought-out plan and a proper implementation of said plan.