After stressing for years that removing insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan is vital to winning the war in Afghanistan, US military officials are subtly deemphasizing the importance of that goal as realities on the ground shift.
Well, yeah. There can be no doubt that a sanctuary is an advantage for the enemy and a problem for us. But we did win in Iraq despite the limited sanctuaries our enemies had in Iran and Syria. And we are working the problem within the limits we find ourselves rather than just giving up.
Of course, a Pakistan sanctuary for the Afghan Taliban means that even after beating the Taliban inside Afghanistan, we'll have to prepare our Afghan allies to resist incursions from the sanctuary if the Taliban try to reestablish themselves inside Afghanistan. And we'll have to help them do it with a massively reduced Coalition presence.
Victory in Afghanistan will be harder to achieve with this reality. But it has always been possible.
