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——measurable progress ——

How does a general measure progress?

Having some casualties now and then is meaningless trifle compared to 70% casualties on Pelilieu. Then there are the more or less resort bases in Italy where there are no casualtities. War an peace produce different results.

Afghanistan is neither war nor peace. Afghanistan is however a threat. A measurement is meaningless in a static condition.

I can’t speak to Syria because I don’t know the facts on the ground.

"Afghanistan is neither war nor peace. Afghanistan is however a threat. A measurement is meaningless in a static condition."

Believe me, there are metrics to be applied. First you have to define what the endgame is and then you can develop metrics to measure by. There has to be an endgame and that's what Trump has to demand from his Generals. There has not been a lot written about this so I don't know what the endgame is, I can only guess.

If there wasn't an endgame, then Trump needs to be on the phone with Asharaf Ghani to ask him what he needs the United States Military forces for in Afghanistan. What needs to be accomplished in order for us to give your country back to it's people.

If I had to guess what some of the goals are, it is:

1. Bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. How is this done? Probably by making them hurt, deal from a position of strength. Do we have to take back parts of Afghanistan they control? Where? How can we do this? What is the plan to do this?

2. Stand up the Afghani army on it's own to work with coalition partners and fight. If they need our support, then train them (as we're training the Kurds) on Joint ops with coalition partners.

He needs to ask why this hasn't been done over the last 17 years. What's it going to take. Get someone in there that can do it and report back with measurables on these tasks. Instead of firing SecDefs, he should be firing (not promoting) Generals until he finds one that can get the job done. That's the Lincoln example of CnC. You think Grant, Ike, Patton came up with excuses? They produced results.