...Now we have decided to redefine the word "win"! A series of corruptcorporate owners and some lousy coaches have been misusing -- even abusing! -- team members for years, resulting in one debacle after another. Mostly they've resorted to moving the goal posts during the game in order to claim a touchdown or two (when the ball came nowhere near the actual site of the goal posts). That didn't work.
Obama administration officials and lawmakers are lowering the bar for success in Afghanistan ahead of the first strategic review of war policy in the post-Osama bin Laden era.
Washington has largely shed words like “winning” and “success” as public fatigue about the costs and duration of the decade-long conflict have increased.
What is emerging is a search for a new definition for winning the war in Afghanistan that would allow most U.S. forces to leave the war-torn country without the risk of having the Taliban and al Qaeda quickly fill a vacuum. ...The Hill
Mind you, plenty of Americans (mostly wives and mothers, prepubescent children, and even a few Mensa men) realize it's a dangerous, stupid game, win or lose. They're right. They know that even at home we're unable to achieve "sustainable stability" these days.
We need more of them in leadership positions or we'll be stuck forever in a "post-Vietnam" era during which America does damage to others and itself over and over and over...
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Let's make an exception for some men. Some are smart.
“If there is any nation in the world that really needs nation-building right now, it is the United States,” said Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), who was Navy secretary under President Reagan.
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Andrew Bacevich is not only a distinguished member of the military, he lost his son in Iraq. As Voice of America notes, Bacevich has made very clear his own view of our semi-permanent state of war.
“The whole notion that war is the only response to violent anti-Western Jihadism is preposterous, and backs us into a corner where all choices are bad choices," he said. "I think the United States needs to be more selective in its willingness to use power. Being more selective would very much serve our interests.”
