POLITICO: Obama’s Dysfunctional Relationship With The Military. “Was there a single moment when Obama’s relationship with the military began to sour? Most observers point to the bruising 2009 debates about troop numbers in Afghanistan.” Tellingly, Obama got this one wrong, adding more troops, but not enough troops. And this take seems applicable to more than military affairs: “There’s a sense that the White House wants contradictory, impossible things … but won’t resource them.”