What Is Our Strategic Endstate in Afghanistan?

[William F. Owen]

Wilf are you out there??? If COIN/IW is war, and war is war, exactly how do you conduct it without an idea on how it ends????

Excellent question. I subscribe to both CvC and Delbruk, in terms of either annihilation or exhaustion. If COIN is biased away from Combat and more to Security, then I would suggest you aim to exhaust as nothing decisive can be done, in terms of annihilation.

To exhaust, keep doing what works and try not to do those things that do not (killing civilians). As I said it is like maintenance, and not construction. You've won when the other guy cannot go on. The desired end state will appear. You'll recognise it because it will look very different to the undesired end state, and you know what they look like.