I think the issue is a bit less about “concrete signs of progress,” though those are always welcome, than they are about a desire to have some clarity about goals.

Exactly. The inability to come up with metrics suggests that the Obama administration doesn’t exactly know what its concrete goals in Afghanistan and Pakistan are or ought to be. Strategic drift emerges from that lack of clarity.

Over the coming days, I’m going to do a series of posts about the concrete interests the U.S. has at stake in Afghanistan and Pakistan as an attempt to cut through some of the dross and euphemism and moot a conception of what’s at stake. I just did an interview with a Columbia Journalism Review reporter who asked a question about the press coming up with its own metrics. My actual answer was a bit skeptical about reporters opining about such things, but in my role as Ackerman-the-blogger I think there’s a responsible way of framing some of these questions. 

And this post was also a cheap and transparent way of sneaking in this user-generated video for Metric’s "Stadium Love." I’ll be out of pocket until, probably, 2, advising the next generation of American Prospect reporters, so pray for them and don’t expect content until after 2.