Marc Lynch wants new Afghanistan metrics:
For everyone involved in the debate -- including me -- what specific developments, metrics, or events would lead you to change your mind? What are the things which, if observed over the next year, would lead you to support a different policy? For me, it's perhaps the consolidation of a more legitimate Afghan political order and stronger evidence that Afghans and Pakistanis shared America's conception of interests. For Steve Biddle yesterday, it was the opposite: evidence that 12-18 months of sustained American efforts had not improved Afghan governance or political legitimacy. For Nagl, it was Pakistan giving up its nuclear weapons (?). Yesterday John Nagl said that we shouldn't think of the Afghanistan war having gone on 8 years, since COIN was only now being tried. Well, the debate about the Afghan war has really only been going on for a couple of months. Let's give that some time too.