How to Solve a Foreign Policy Problem

Make it bigger:

Petraeus linked Afghanistan's fortunes directly to Pakistan's, where a U.S.-backed civilian government is struggling and the country's ability to control militants along its border with Afghanistan is in doubt.

"Afghanistan and Pakistan have, in many ways, merged into a single problem set, and the way forward in Afghanistan is incomplete without a strategy that includes and assists Pakistan," and also takes into account Pakistan's troubled relationship with rival India, Petraeus said.

This is certainly true, but think about the implications. The U.S. and NATO have not been able to shore up Afghanistan seven years after invading. They're now asserting that they can only solve that problem by tackling a much larger, immensely more complicated one in India/Pakistan.

But why should we have any confidence that this gambit can succeed, if the smaller problem of Afghanistan has proven so difficult? Wouldn't setting more modest goals for Afghanistan make more sense?