By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

Having not defined winning in Afghanistan, we can afford to lose. But meanwhile, American soldiers fight and die there. Meanwhile, a Commander-in-Chief rarely speaks to his commanders.

President Obama has not defined victory in Afghanistan because he’s not equipped nor staffed to formulate strategy. Having abrogated that responsibility, having committed this war to one of attrition, we should start to understand that committees serve good purpose in politics. Committees distribute blame.

In the coming weeks, the blame game will commence:

Obama will point to a need for the Afghan government to decide their own definition of victory…

Obama will see the false need to allow the UN to step in and form additional committees and hold a summit…

Obama will issue General McChyrystal with an interim order to hold out until after Christmas, after the UN summit, after the Afghan government wrist slapping session…

The President is leafing through the history books for analogies, listening to the old Vietnam Vets tell him we shouldn’t have been there in the first place, and probably channeling the spirit of Robert McNamera.

We can afford to lose because we have not defined a win.

Therefore:
- let’s cut our losses, fold onto Kabul
- engage in “strategic overwatch” with a UN force of 20,000
- appoint a UN envoy to orchestrate this...
- negotiate with the various Taliban leaders
- secretly hunt and kill al Qaeda
- support Pakistan
- bring Russia and China onto the team
- and facilitate the Afghan government’s efforts to define their nation-state’s destiny