You should seriously consider looking at and consider buying the March/April 2013 issue of Foreign Policy magazine (How Not To Win A War).  It does an excellent job of looking back to how the United States has done such a poor job at waging war.  I used the word “poor” while others may substitute the word “incompetent”.  The issue mainly cites Afghanistan in its analysis.  As part of this issue, they reveal how President Obama allowed for  similar failed administration process as George W. Bush for sanitizing people working on the war effort (revealed in Imperial Life In The Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran) by stuffing under qualified individuals into positions of war and “nation building” buy having each individual pass the political litmus test of allegiance to their “leader” (in the case of George W. Bush that would be Chaney and his neocon ideology).    A whole lot of ideas come out of this issue that are not explicit stated but one can most easily pull out of the issue:

• Evidently no one in high office even thinks of conducting deep choice analysis prior to invasions of foreign countries.
• The US Military method of waging war is land grab.
• The US always takes on the method of looking down upon the country being invaded and imposing our views and methods.
• The US Military can really run it off the rails when it gets involved in deciding policy.
• The CIA can really ruin the war effort when it gets involved in deciding policy.
• The U.S. State Department expertise is not appreciated, under utilized as a result, because their business is seen as making sausage.  Presidents seem unable to comprehend political complexity, want it simple.