For $4 billion a month, there had better be a happy ending

[bigtree]

Wed, 08/12/2009

Holbrooke on 'success' in Afghanistan: “We’ll know it when we see it”

. . . live-tweeting a conference with Amb. Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and members of his interagency team hosted by the Center for American Progress . . . While there were certainly substantive issues discussed (the role of Iran, the upcoming presidential elections in Afghanistan, the state of the Pakistani Taliban post-Baitullah Mehsud), what caught my attention was a flippant quip by the ambassador.

Asked about how to measure success and progress in Afghanistan, Holbrooke remarked, "In the simplest sense, the Supreme Court test for another issue: We'll know it when we see it."

A universal head-desk rippled through the Twitterverse, with Foreign Policy blogger Mark Lynch tweeting "Feel reassured?" and Spencer Ackerman chiming in with "Is there alcohol here?" CAP's Brian Katulis asked, "Will 'we know it when we see it' be convincing enough for the American people and the Hill, focused on econ and health care?" and FP's own Josh Keating drew the parallel, "Holbrooke suggests AfPak success like pornography: ‘we'll know it when we see it.'" Harvard's Stephen Walt has added his two cents here.

Metrics in Afghanistan are hard. That much is obvious. There's also potential peril in being held to standards that you may or may not be able to meet. But Katulis hit the nail on the head: "We'll know it when we see it" is not a convincing enough argument for the public and policymakers . . .

read more: http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/08/12/holbrooke_on_success_we_ll_know_it_when_we_see_it

[tekisui]

1. Translation: We'll be there for damn near ever.

It is so much easier to not define an unattainable win.

[bob4460]

2. Why can't we see that we are going down the wrong road here???

The same rosd the U.S.S.R. went down and lost and then they lost it ALL!!