Fred Kagan writes in the Washington Examiner:
President Bush left a confused situation. A mission undertaken with reasonable clarity had become vague and muddled. Many feared that the mission was creeping away from its initially limited aims to a full-up attempt at nation building in a collapsed state. His Democratic successor recognized the importance of the mission, but his priorities lay on domestic affairs. He did not want the conflict, however important or symbolic it might be, to overwhelm his ambitious program of reforms for the economy and health care. In the early days of his presidency, nevertheless, he and his principal advisers articulated an even grander vision for the mission than Bush had, following through on his campaign statement, "I have felt for a long time that we should do more. ..." When it became clear that the situation on the ground was deteriorating, however, the local military commander asked for reinforcements. President Clinton was reluctant to send them, and Secretary of Defense Les Aspin refused to provide Gen. Thomas Montgomery with the armored vehicles and air support he had requested. On Oct. 3, 1993, a team of Rangers and Special Forces troops were caught in an ambush in Mogadishu, Somalia. Without armor or adequate air support, they lost 18 dead and 77 wounded. The images of dead American soldiers being dragged through Somali streets continued to haunt the United States for more than a decade. There are important differences between the current situation in Afghanistan and that in Somalia in 1993. President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright embraced the concept of nation building and portrayed American efforts in Somalia as a model of the "assertive multilateralism" it advocated. President Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, on the other hand, have been more reserved about the wisdom or practicality of nation building in Afghanistan, working to confine rather than expand the U.S. mission there. And, so far, they have not yet refused a request from the commander in the theater for reinforcements.
Read the rest here.