The United States got behind the eightball in Vietnam because the President attempted to run the war from Washington. For example, artillery batteries were told by Washington how many rounds they could fire each day. After that allotment was fired, they could no longer provide fire support to troops under attack. As a result, many troops died who would have lived if they had been properly supported. This sort of management from the top is ingrained in the psyche of Democrats, so we can expect to see it implemented in Afghanistan, which will lead to us losing the war there. Here is a report on a recent ambush of American troops that succeeded because of no artillery or air support. Note that the civilians in the area were helping the Taliban, which makes them combatants. The Democrats have trouble realizing that war is hell, and that killing people on the other side is necessary in order to win. The idea is to kill them without having troops on your side killed. Bush demanded that our troops in Iraq be careful, but he did let themdefend themselves.