Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Makin' Memories At The Pottery Wheel, Rubbin' Clay On You All Afternoon

Matt is blogging about a twitter conversation between foreign policy people (what has the world come to?) about how to define victory in Afghanistan, and it's seeming like Obama has a big advantage on his side regarding the domestic politics of Afghanistan. The question of what constitutes victory has gotten so unclear and popular American understandings of the situation on the ground are so murky that any definition of victory confidently presented by a reasonably popular administration will be accepted.

So if Obama wants to set the bar really low, hop over it, and go home, he can do that and look like a winner. Maybe the easy goal is making sure the Taliban don't rule Afghanistan again or something like that. Or if he sees a well-defined, worthwhile, and potentially achievable goal that's a little more difficult, he can pursue that. But I hope he realizes that he's got control over the definition of victory, at least as far as American perceptions are concerned, and he can use that as he wants.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

If you don't know what victory looks like, it's time to get the military out. And if the closest you can get (in admittedly 140 characters) is that we need to "really win" then I'm afraid we've already really lost too much.