in Afghanistan:
WTF Over? We don't want to "win" now? Well, I have news for the President, every one of the men and women in uniform that is sweating, shooting, bleeding and dying to accomplish our mission there is looking for "victory." They know what is measurable and what isn't. And they definitely know what it looks like at the end.
Now, I know that in the COIN battle-space that it is difficult to get hard measurements for the Powerpoint Rangers to put in briefing slides, but I do know that one of the many "measurable goals" of war-fighting (thereby leading to "victory") is the surrender/capture/death of the enemy. Economic development and stabilizing the government are all legs of the stool, but the the rock solid base of the stool, the thing that "contracts the ability of Al-Qaeda to operate" is killing or capturing (although capturing now has a greatly lessened effect) the enemy. That is what makes all of the other things possible.
But our CINC, having never been at the point of anything except petitions drives and organized protests, may not understand what I am getting at...
There's more.
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