Winning the War in Afghanistan

[carl]

More accurately, Pakistan is the main Metric of the effectiveness of our operational design and engagement in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

As you note, the indicators are that we have mis-diagnosed the nature of the problem severely and that our approaches to date are inappropriate.

I agree, but the crux of our mis-diagnosis is that of the man who is convinced he can't be fooled being the easiest to put one over on; our "Great White Father" type of attitude, at the same time arrogant and silly. We may have erred in every way possible but the primary cause of Pakistan's woes is to be found in Pakistan. And the Pakistani's responsible for the mess are in the Pak Army/ISI. They are not a group of naive, innocent little children looking at us through their eyebrows, trusting the revered uncle to lead them well. To the contrary, we've been played by Fagin's crew and the naive children wandering around are our blind rats inside the beltway, the ones with the triple digit GS numbers and the stars on their shoulders.