In early April, the New York Times published an article (”Dutch Soldiers Stress Restraint In Afghanistan”) exploring what would happen if anti-terrorist task forces in Afghanistan, instead of fighting, helped physically rebuild the community and retreated at first glimpse of an insurgent offensive. Staunch US military officials called the tactic yellow; the Dutch — retorting that they were not yellow, but in fact orange — tip-toed along with the unorthodox strategy. Six days later, they were ambushed and in some distant military control room a scoff said I-told-you-so. You don’t win a war by building schools and opening up clinics and befriending locals.

But in the past months, it became increasingly clear we weren’t winning the war our way, either. Over 100 Afghani civilians died each month this year under American command.

And then something strange happened. The American people noticed. Whether it was the impending election or the refreshing victory after the last one or the waves of NPR and This American Life, enough of us noticed “the war was being terribly mismanaged” and decided to do something about it. It didn’t matter what Bush’s commanders said.

South Carolina and its National Guard led the charge. They raised money entirely from private donors, rebuffed at the lack of federal funding and approval for Dutch-like tactics, and brought health care, clothes, and food to the front lines of Afghanistan. Later this summer, the 218th Brigade Combat Team was planning to open up a clinic with a doctor and free pharmacy in Alo Kheyl, but after a NATO bombing last week left many injured and emotionally jarred, they expedited the plan and the clinic’s doors opened briefly on Thursday.

Lines flooded, people vied for treatments ranging from scarlet fever to muscle pains, and the clinic and pharmacy had to shut early because its resources had run dry. But as a local man put it, everybody wins a war that is fought like this.

On both sides, of course, the hopes of immediate results are intoxicating. But the shift in opinions is bound to be incremental. The ground troops expect, just like the Dutch did, allegiance from the locals, who can protect them with warnings of coming Taliban attacks. But the expectation that you can buy people’s support is nothing more than a desperate one. Things come with time, and always when you least expect it.

And back at home, protesters and pickets signs, too, are intoxicated with the thought that the government is coming around to these successes and the war’s strategy will be repaired. It is true, the government is erected to represent the people. And it is true that we have the right to overthrow it when it stops doing so. But we, the public, have only recently put down our complaints and started acting — the heavy, sticky ball of the government takes time to start rolling.

The good news is, we’ve all started pushing.

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