President-Elect Obama inherits a bulging IN box full of unsolved problems and things the Bush administration has ignored. Right on top is the war in Afghanistan. It’s not going well. Bringing about an end to the fighting on terms favorable to U.S. national security will be very hard to do.

Fortunately, we know-it-all bloggers are here to help. Here’s a sample of recent blog posts addressing various failures in Afghanistan, and things that can be done about them:

Three from Danger Room’s Nathan Hodge:

Big Problem: Pentagon Can’t Track Afghan Small Arms

The Pentagon’s Inspector General just released a report on the system for accounting for small arms supplied to the Afghan National Army — and the findings are definitely not good… This is more than just an accounting issue: sloppy handling of arms shipments raises a serious risk that these weapons could fall into the wrong hands.

Dear Barack: Please Stop Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan. Love, Hamid

More grim news from Afghanistan: An airstrike by U.S.-led forces may have claimed the lives of more civilians. The New York Times quotes Afghan officials as saying as many as 40 civilians were killed after a coalition airstrike hit a wedding party in Kandahar province.

Stopping Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan: One Out-of-the-Box Idea

A well-connected outsider has an out-of-the-box idea for the new administration. “One thing President Obama can do immediately: Create by executive order a high-level position at the Pentagon dedicated to the human costs of war,” Sarah Holewinski, executive director of the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, tells DANGER ROOM.

Johann Hari on HuffPo:

The Time-Bombs Ticking Under Obama’s Presidency

You cannot clear Talibanism out of Afghanistan by force. They are too large, the land is too impenetrable, and the harder you try with brute force, the more Afghans you drive towards them. The US commitment to destroying the country’s opium poppy crop super-charges the hate. What country would ever accept foreign forces committed to trashing 60 percent of their economy?

Here’s your path out. Buy the opium crop and use it to make painkillers, as the US does in Southern Turkey. Then you would be approaching Afghan peasants not with guns, but cash. Then you will have to do something ugly. You are going to have to negotiate with the Taliban. …Afghan President Hamid Karzai and now even General Petraeus are begging to do this.

Recent One Utah posts:

Afghanistan: “We landed in a hornet’s nest when we got here” (October 20)
Afghanistan End Game (October 6)
Leaked Cable: American Strategy is Destined to Fail in Afghanistan (October 1)
Bush Administration Hiding Afghanistan NIE Until After Election (September 23)