The Hill News

This week marks ten years of our involvement in Afghanistan; during that time our servicemen and women have demonstrated astounding courage. We routinely stand in awe of their efforts and their sacrifices which are in the best tradition of what America puts forward. But we should also be asking: are we winning?

In raising this question, it is important to ask what winning means. President Obama has laid out his Afghanistan strategy in three broad pillars: defeating al Qaeda, preventing the Taliban from overthrowing the government, and building the capacity of the Afghan Army and government.

While these are all laudable goals, in defining two-thirds of our strategy by absence â€" no al Qaeda and no Taliban â€" President Obama created an end state that cannot ever be reached. And the other third of the strategy as something indefinable: “good enough” governance by Afghans.

Without any commonly agreed-to set of circumstances that defi! ne these goals we lack the means to tell whether the war is being won or not.

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