I agree with you that that is part of it. But I am not exactly aware of what the military were telling the politicians. I know that, with regard to the security situation, they were sending overly optimistic analyses that did not reflect the actual situation in Afghanistan. I remember some situations, such as when one of my colleagues, an ambassador, said something negative and the military were angry at him. There were times like that. But I think that happens a lot in the military. They have a success mentality: they have to win. So they are in the habit of inflating their successes a little.
On November 18th, 2009. See this statement in context.