Outside the Beltway

Afghanistan Plan Conference Call

James Joyner · Friday, March 27, 2009 · 3 comments

Denis McDonough, deputy assistant to the president in charge of strategic communications for the National Security Council, and Caitlin Hayden, director of communications at NSC, held a conference call this afternoon, organized by the White House, to discuss the plan with invited bloggers.

Uncharacteristically, I managed to get in the first question and some follow-ups:

JAMES JOYNER (Atlantic Council): “What’s the exit strategy? How will we know when we’ve won and can go home?”

MCDONOUGH: Afghans take the lead role. We’ve seen “fundamental strategic drift” and now have a “clear goal” to have “key metrics” to measure success.

JOYNER: “What’s the timeframe? Ten years? Twenty years? Thirty years? Or simply however long it takes to achieve metrics?”

MCDONOUGH: We’ll have regular reporting to assess metrics.

JOYNER: “But we’re willing to stay indefinitely so long as we’re achieving process?”

MCDONOUGH: So long as we can achieve support of American people.

NOAH SHACHTMAN (Wired),  SPENCER ACKERMAN (Washington Independent), FAIZ SHAKIR (Think Progress), ALEX THURSTON (The Seminal), ILAN GOLDENBERG (National Security Network), BRANDON FRIEDMAN (Vet Voice), DAVID AXE (War is Boring), and LAURA ROSEN (Foreign Policy) also got in questions.

See my New Atlanticist writeup, Afghanistan-Pakistan Plan Conference Call, for my notes on their questions as well as a quick take on the plan itself.

Of course, Dave Schuler has previously given his thoughts, which I endorse, as well as his speculation on what the plan would say, which proved prescient.