Very good comment, I very much appreciate your measured and well reasoned response. It's refreshing. When it comes to Afghanistan, I have a couple of criticisms on how we handled it.
1. GWB and the group he surrounded himself with let hubris keep them working out a back channel deal to get Bin Laden handed to them through a third party. We could have had that. However, we simply didn't understand Afghan culture well enough to get out of our own way. The Taliban knew they were going to be hammered the day A! hit the WTC. They did harbor Bin Laden, but Bin Laden had not told them of the details of his attack until it was unfolding. They actually tried to negotiate handing Bin Laden over to a 3rd party so they could save face within their ranks. There would be no mercy within the Taliban for anyone surrendering Bin Laden to the U.S. directly, however they could pull off handing him over to someone else if there were some kind of supporting evidence that he was behind 9/11. Problem is, Bush started beating his chest - "you're with us or you're with the terrorists." The media campaign that ensued had Bush front and center, the U.S. versus Islam (how most Muslims viewed it). That kind of attitude made it impossible for the Taliban leadership to make any kind of deal, direct or back channel. So we beat the war drums and went in. Bush and Co. would not have terms dictated by a bunch backwards ass "toweliban" tribesmen, we have Tomahawk missles, B-52's, Navy SEALS, etc. Unfortunately, nobody was able to convince the Taliban they shouldn't
2. I think we had a great strategy early on, but failed to commit an appropriate amount of resources to actually fulfill the mission, which is why Bin Laden slipped out of Tora Bora and eventually wound up in Pakistan. From all I've read, and it is substantial, it was "too little, too late" once we had his location pinned down. And as you pointed out, we switched our strategy from "getting Bin Laden" to destroying the Taliban and bombing until the U.S. brand of democracy was adopted. There is so little understanding about the region, and what resources were available, we just refused to listen to. We are America, we have the best weapons, give us what we want or we'll smash you...the Taliban may be simple compared by western standards, but they don't back down. They outlasted the Russians, and they will outlast us. Just because we occupy ground there does not mean we control the country, and Americans just don't get that concept.
A good book relating to Afghan history is
Games Without Rules: The Often Interrupted History of Afghanistan.