(Sep.30, 2010) Sometimes it's the little things in the big stories that catch your eye. On Monday, the Washington Post ran the first of three pieces adapted from Bob Woodward's new book "Obama's Wars," a vivid account of the way the U.S. high command boxed the Commander-in-Chief into the smallest of Afghan corners.

As an illustration, the Post included a graphic the military offered President Obama at a key November 2009 meeting to review war policy. It caught in a nutshell the favored "solution" Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General David Petraeus, then-Centcom commander, General Stanley McChrystal, then-Afghan War commander, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, among others.

Labeled "Alternative Mission in Afghanistan," it's a classic of visual wish fulfillment. Atop it is a soaring green line that represents the growing strength of the notoriously underwhelming "Afghan Forces,"on the chart.

Sometime between 2013 and 2016, according to a hesitant dotted white line (that left plenty of room for error), those U.