3 TO 5 YEAR OFFICER COMMITMENT TO AFGHANISTAN

This is good news. As far as I am concerned numbers alone cannot do the trick. The limited time totally unconnected to development on the ground has always struck me as representative of inadequate commitment to victory. No one went to fight Germany for a six month or twelve month stint. They went for the duration. That not only increased their interest in a swift victory but also insured that the hard earned lessons will be exploited.

That is the reason I am so thrilled to read the following. It means that army strategists finally get it and, moreover, begin to act on their understanding. WSJ reports:

Military and defense officials said in interviews that the new Afghanistan units reflected a belief in the importance of developing cadres of officers who can do repeat tours to the country.

That's a change from moving officers from assignment to assignment based on overall institutional needs, which means troops can do deployments in Afghanistan and then not look at the conflict again for several years.

The Afghan Hands initiative is meant to immerse dozens of officers from each of the military's services in Afghanistan for three to five years. Troops selected for the program will do a year in Afghanistan before moving to the Pentagon's new Afghanistan office or to jobs at Central Command that are focused on the war.