The rulers in power now could care less about anything but polls and politics.
Afghanistan and the fate of our troops will be "managed" as a political event from week to week and depending on what the polls tell them to do they will do. For them its all a game of power, money and influece. Matters not whether they put zero in Copenhagen,out on the campaign circuit for obamacare, cap and tax or whatever its all agenda vs. polling.
The only "hope" we have of any "change" is to out maneuver them politically. That means getting the message out that our troops are being used as pawns in a cynical game of recreating the US into a socialist empire.
Great post! You are spot on.