Afghanistan Myths debunked

I just read an interesting article in The Weekly Standard written by Tom Cotton, who was an Army infantry officer from 2005-2009. He returned from Afghanistan in July. He says there are myths believed by Congress and the media regarding Afghanistan which need to be debunked.

1. A counterterrorism campaign is an effective alternative to counterinsurgency. (answer)Without a simultaneous counterinsurgency, we cannot defeat al Qaeda with counterterrorism strikes alone.
2. The Afghan people don't want us there. (answer) The people would accept more troops in exchange for more security. He says we have the worst situation possible in Afghanistan. Enough troops to raise Afghans' expectations, but not enough to protect them.
3. America cannot win a war in Afghanistan, the "graveyard of empires." (answer) America has a counter-insurgency policy whereas the Soviet Union had a genocide policy. The Soviets, in particular, taught us how not to win in Afghanistan. They employed vicious massively destructive tactics that inflamed the Afghan people and still scar the country with depopulated valleys and adult amputees maimed as children by toy-shaped mines. Our present way of war couldn't be more different.
4. America needs a new political partner before committing more troops. (answer)A government battling insurgency is by definition weak, else the insurgency would never have gained strength. We must accept this and focus on helping improve President Karzai's government, not use it as an excuse to abandon his government.
5. We should not put troops in harm's way without thorough debate. (answer)True, but we already have 68,000 troops very much in harm's way and they need reinforcements.
6. The military will break if we send more troops to Afghanistan. (answer) To be sure our military needs to grow in both size and funding to reflect wartime priorities and alleviate the stress of repeated deployments, but the quickest way to break the military is to lose a war.

Here's a link to the Stratfor Global Intelligence video....Afghanistan to become Obama's War.