Here are just two links we looked at last week by way of conclusion. They both illustrate the complexity of the matter.
The first one is a New York Times article about the use of PowerPoint in the military. The piece is illustrated by a very obscure slide aimed at portraying the complexity of the Afghan war. General Mc Chrystal, ironically commenting on the absurdity of that slide, reportedly declared that “when we understand [it] we’ll have won the war” (see article).
The second one is a German website that I found pretty entertaining. The students seemed to have a different opinion, but they got caught in playing with it eventually. It maps the many plausible scenarios for the future Afghanistan. It’s definitely worth looking at.
Enjoy,
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About Afghanopoly
I am an Assistant Professor of peace and conflict studies at Radboud University's Centre for International Conflict Analysis and Management (CICAM). I completed my PhD in Political Science at Northwestern University and Sciences Po under the supervision of Will Reno and Bertrand Badie. Among other things, I teach students about the politics of international intervention in Afghanistan and elsewhere. My research focuses on the political strategies that Afghan strongmen use to consolidate and legitimize their authority. I am particularly interested in how these actors manage to conduct their own forms of international relations. My field research brings me in contact with Afghan community leaders, politicians, diplomats and foreign military officers.
Afghanopoly 
Here is another mindbender of a slide. Its actually usefull
as an analysis tool, but a very poor briefing tool. The word on the
street to us staff officer types is PP is on its way out as a
briefing tool to senior commanders. McCrystal and Patreaus have
expressed a dislike for it and they set the tone for other senior
commanders for what is in vogue. http://zenpundit.com/?p=3627 Here
is another academic expressing the difficulties faced by Human
Terrain Teams (HTT’s) in breaking through “The Brief” format to
show the value of their work to commanders in the field.
http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2010/12/counterinsurgency-as-a-cultura/