Short Term Thinking Is Dooming U.S. War Strategy

U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Heath Sarvis, right, conducts a site survey of Kandahar University, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, March 24, 2012. Sarvis is the commander of Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Timothy Chacon

How Short-Term Thinking Makes The U.S. Worse At Fighting Wars -- Joshua Foust, The Atlantic

From Vietnam to Afghanistan, 12-month deployments and institutional norms have made long-term planning more difficult.

In 2010, the U.S. adopted a new tactic in southern Afghanistan: it began to bulldoze entire villages to clear them of IEDs. The policy -- reminiscent of Vietnam, of destroying villages to save them -- spoke to a deeper issue with how the war was being fought. Short-term objectives were emphasized over long term planning or consequence management. Destroying villages carries enormous long-term costs for a region, and the U.S. military just wasn't paying attention to what those would be.

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My Comment: I have lost count on how many top commanders have cycled in and out of Afghanistan in just the past few years alone. This lack of cohesion is one that we have .... and will continue to have .... detrimental consequences.