kerkko.fi

Historically, the default strategy for wars that lack a plausible victory narrative is attrition. When you don’t know how to win, you try to outlast your opponent, hoping he’ll run out of troops, money and will before you do. Think World War I, but also Vietnam. The revival of the counterinsurgency doctrine, celebrated as evidence of enlightened military practice, commits America to a postmodern version of attrition.

Americans today do not have a clue when, where or how their war will end. The Long War, as the Pentagon aptly calls it, has no coherent narrative. When it comes to defining victory, U.S. political and military leaders are flying blind. How does this end? The verdict is already written: The Long War ends not in victory but in exhaustion and insolvency, when the United States runs out of troops and out of money.

http://enduringamerica.com/2010/01/02/afghanistan-and-the-long-war-obama-tell-me-how-this-ends/