Middle ground

I'm not exactly for an escalation in Afghanistan. Shocker, I know. I'm especially not for it after having watched the Frontline special Obama's War (which you can view in its entirety here) which could only get those pushing for troop increases to explain how the strategy would take shape and not why we should use that strategy or whether or not it was even a good idea in the first place. In addition it couldn't find Afghans that thought it was a good idea or we were positively contributing to things over there, and then finished up by making the point that Pakistan, our supposed other ally there, was almost assuredly our enemy. That being said, can we not do shit like this?

As the Obama administration debates whether to shift its aims in Afghanistan, officials at the Pentagon and National Security Council have begun developing "middle path" strategies that would require fewer troops than their ground commander is seeking.
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Other steps would concentrate U.S. and allied troops in cities, pulling out of Afghanistan's widely dispersed rural areas. At the same time, the allied forces would push ahead with plans to intensify training of Afghan troops, officials said.

None of the strategies envision troop reductions, but officials said they would not require the 40,000-troop increase preferred by Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the U.S. and allied commander. A number of White House officials favor sending fewer than 20,000 additional troops.

Great. Since there only seems to be two plans, General McChrystal's and VP Joe Biden's, can we just pick one of them and do it? I'm no military expert, but I'm fairly sure McChrystal has at least some idea of what he's doing, and that furthermore, when he conceived of a plan he knew enough to ask for enough resources to do it to the best of his abilities. Same for an experienced foreign policy hand like Biden. So can we at least do what the two main experts and their groups of supporters want to do in the exact way they want to do it instead of finding some middle road strategy concocted by political brokers in a sad attempt to please everyone?

When does taking two opposite plans and doing what's halfway between them ever worked in a military situation? Didn't we learn that in Iraq? Don't half ass and piecemeal plans according to whims, notions, and hunches in an attempt to please everyone, just pick one way and commit to it fully. This isn't a sampler platter.