Mr. President, I have come to the painful conclusion that you have no understanding of military strategy. Now before you blow a gasket, in my opinion, only five presidents in our entire history have truly comprehended the complexities of the subject: Washington, Lincoln, Grant, FDR and Eisenhower. Now, we aren't talking about geopolitical strategy or foreign policy strategy; putting together coalitions or alliances or developing the containment strategy for dealing with the Soviet Union. Military strategy is one level down from those, but it is crucial to comprehend nonetheless.

Military strategy is not easy; you simply cannot go on the Internet to Wikipedia, watch "Patton," or even buy the deluxe DVD set of all 152 episodes of "Combat" with Sergeant Saunders, Doc, Caje and Little John, and all of a sudden become the second coming of Napoleon. Your predecessor, you know the guy you still blame for current problems, sometimes referred to it as "military strategery." But George W. Bush did have one thing going for him: he knew how to ask the right questions. And we can teach you how to ask the right questions.

The first person you need to question is yourself. What does the term "center of gravity" mean? What is a strategy of indirect approach? What are the strengths and weaknesses of a sequential versus a cumulative military strategy? I think you are getting the point, but don't worry; we can fix this. Call over to the National War College. Direct them to form a hush-hush, small team of professors who will teach you what you need to know. It will be a lot of reading, but they can do this over a few months.

Once you get comfortable with the basics, ask the same questions to your high-level advisers around you, who may believe that they are Alexander the Great reincarnated. Start with Vice President Joe Biden. Ask the questions in private, because you don't want to embarrass anyone in front of their peers. In addition to the questions mentioned before and questions you develop from discussions with the war college professors, ask the VP about his preferred military strategy in Afghanistan, a scale-back in ground forces combined with an increased reliance on unmanned drone attacks on terrorists. Ask him what the measuring tools are that will define progress in this strategy. What are the branches and sequels of this strategy, and what is a fall-back or alternative strategy?

Finally, ask him that given that we attempted a version of this strategy in Afghanistan in the Clinton administration, and that it did not work, what conditions and assumptions have now changed to indicate that trying this military strategy again might be successful.

Hold these question periods with every other adviser who you rely on to provide advice on military strategy. You may need to give those war college teachers a big list of future students. Start sitting down on a pretty frequent basis with General McChrystal and ask him some tough questions; now you are past asking questions that advisers have suggested or that a teleprompter scripts you to ask, you will know enough to ask your own, which is always much better. Find out from the general how he will measure the strategy and how he will change it depending on conditions.

To understand military strategy, you have to appreciate what goes on in the daily life of the grunts down on the line; my guess is that you don't know that either, but again there's help. Make another call, this time to the Army Inspector General; have them send over some senior noncommissioned officers to help set up visits with you, flying back junior troops from Afghanistan each month. Here's what you ask the troopers. How long were you notified you were going to Afghanistan before you departed? What did your unit have to borrow before they deployed? What equipment over there works and what doesn't?

Sun Tzu, you'll learn about him in your studies, once wrote: "If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril." Your ignorance could get soldiers killed. It's time to hit the books, Mr. President.

French MacLean is a retired Army colonel living in Decatur.