Quote Originally Posted by wm View Post
It isn't a question of our winning. It is a question of, in the current cases, the Afghan and Iraqi people winning. To use a soccer, lacrosse, or hockey metaphor--they score the game winning goal, we may get an assist. (Or perhaps we are just the spectators who get to go home satisfied after watching a well played contest. Insert the "God I hope so" emoticon here.)
My feeling is that by conceptualizing armed conflict as a sport, Americans squeeze themselves into strategically untenable boxes. I'm not contesting whether it is us or an ally that technically "gets the win," but whether pursuing a win in general is a good idea.

My reading of recent conflicts is that it is the conflict itself that generates problems and threats (terrorism, crime, humanitarian disasters, economic problems). By holding out for a "win," we help sustain conflicts. Hence I favor a peacekeeping rather than a warfighting model.