Measurable Metrics

Earlier today I caught a bit of Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice discussing the Administration's new strategy for Afghanistan on CNN. During the course of the interview, Ambassador Rice mentioned that while they hadn't done so yet, the Administration would develop "measurable metrics" to gauge the progress and success of the strategy. Measurable metrics is a term that, for some strange reason, keeps popping up in recent conversations. So, of course, when those words came out of Ambassador Rice's mouth, the phrase "Danger, Will Robinson, danger" echoed in my head.

My fear is that the Administration and the military leaders on the ground in Afghanistan will fall into the trap of setting measurements to determine progress that don't necessarily reflect real progress or paint a misleading picture. We have done this before and then been stymied as to why the situation didn't improve. It can go both ways. We can fool ourselves into believing we are successful when we are not or think we are failing when we are in fact successful. All because the "measurable metrics" we establish may not reflect reality.