What is victory?
I’ve always held that victory is achieved when your enemy becomes your ally. I have never heard what what would constitute victory in Afghanistan or Iraq. That’s because the actual goals — securing a pipeline route for the Caspian oilfields, de-nationalizing Iraq’s oil industry, and protecting Israel’s interests in the region — aren’t avowable. There’s no exit strategy because we haven’t defined (admitted) what we’re doing there to begin with. The problem with leaving the mission undefined is that we can’t measure our progress. 10 feet gained is wonderful if you have 15 feet to travel; not so promising when you have 2000 miles. Of course, politically it is vital to leave victory undefined. Political victory consists of drawing the target around wherever the arrow actually hits. Witness Nixon’s “Peace with Honor” victory speech. He fooled no one; not even the reddest Republicans claim that we won in Vietnam, because even after 40 years we’ve still not admitted what our real goals were
