"We need to do a lot more thinking about how the regime is going to evolve, how the bad guys are going to adapt their tactics, and what measures we're going to need in order to go forward"
About this Quote
The tell in Mitchell Reiss's line is the word "evolve". Diplomats don’t talk like action heroes; they talk like systems analysts who’ve watched certainty get embarrassed by reality. The quote is less a call for cleverness than a warning about complacency: whatever "the regime" is today won’t stay that way once pressure is applied. In that framing, victory isn’t a decisive moment. It’s a moving target with feedback loops.
Reiss also slips in a quiet rebuke of the politics of resolve. "We need to do a lot more thinking" isn’t academic throat-clearing; it’s a pushback against the post-9/11 impulse to treat strategy as a moral posture. By pairing "the regime" with "the bad guys", he uses the blunt language of security talk, but he immediately complicates it with adaptation. The subtext: labels are rhetorically useful, but they can seduce policy into oversimplifying an adversary that learns, decentralizes, and changes incentives.
The phrase "measures we're going to need in order to go forward" does careful bureaucratic work. It signals escalation or retooling without naming specifics that would trigger domestic backlash or diplomatic friction. "Go forward" is progress-talk; "measures" is the technocratic container that can hold anything from intelligence reforms to coalition-building to more coercive steps.
Contextually, this is the worldview of counterinsurgency and post-invasion governance: the recognition that toppling a regime is the opening act, and the harder story is what fills the vacuum. Reiss is arguing for strategic humility dressed in pragmatic urgency.
Reiss also slips in a quiet rebuke of the politics of resolve. "We need to do a lot more thinking" isn’t academic throat-clearing; it’s a pushback against the post-9/11 impulse to treat strategy as a moral posture. By pairing "the regime" with "the bad guys", he uses the blunt language of security talk, but he immediately complicates it with adaptation. The subtext: labels are rhetorically useful, but they can seduce policy into oversimplifying an adversary that learns, decentralizes, and changes incentives.
The phrase "measures we're going to need in order to go forward" does careful bureaucratic work. It signals escalation or retooling without naming specifics that would trigger domestic backlash or diplomatic friction. "Go forward" is progress-talk; "measures" is the technocratic container that can hold anything from intelligence reforms to coalition-building to more coercive steps.
Contextually, this is the worldview of counterinsurgency and post-invasion governance: the recognition that toppling a regime is the opening act, and the harder story is what fills the vacuum. Reiss is arguing for strategic humility dressed in pragmatic urgency.
Quote Details
| Topic | Vision & Strategy |
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