I think you're right, Kendall. Especially where Afghanistan is concerned, Obama is in a no-win position, thanks to the previous administration.
(We should have treated the "war" on Al Quaeda as an intelligence and police operation from the get-go -- starting, for instance, with not kicking fluent speakers of Arabic and Farsi out of the military for being gay.
I think Bush and Cheney, and their cohorts in the "war industry," felt it would be just fine if we were "stuck" in Afghanistan indefinitely.   More money for the defense industries, more fear on the part of the voters, more power to the Republicans, so more money to them and the other kinds of industries they are in bed with.
(And, yes, too many of the Dems are in bed with the same industries.)

Unfortunately, though we now have a new administration, getting out of this quagmire is no simple matter.   And if the Obama admistration could just order all of our troops home and then Al Quaeda regrouped in Afghanistan and, heaven forbid, pulled off another major attack on the US, we would soon have the same kind of Congress back in power as we had from 2000 to 2006 and another hawkish administration would be back in power in 2012.