I found a link on Foreign Policy that pretty much answered most of my assertions and questions. The Obama administration has set clear metrics for Afghanistan and Pakistan. In the documents words,

Background: During his March 27, 2009 speech announcing our new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, President Obama said "going forward, we will not blindly stay the course. Instead, we will set clear metrics to measure progress and hold ourselves accountable."

The reason PLs and COs, along with Afghans and Americans, should know the metrics we are using in a counter-insurgency is because they are the ones executing the policies. When everyone is on the same page, we get better results plain and simple. Also, the PLs and COs will be the ones reporting progress, so why wouldn't know what they are being evaluated on?