In the Arena
Afghanistan

Afghanistan: A New Balance

By Joe Klein | @JoeKleinTIME | October 18, 2010 | +

The long-awaited battle for Kandahar Province has begun and Time’s Jason Motlagh is there, at the heart of the fight in the same Zhari district where I embedded last April. There is a larger story here, about a change in emphasis by General David Petraeus, from counterinsurgency toward counterterrorism, that Fred Kaplan laid out here last week, ably as ever. For those for whom this is gobbledygook, let me provide a quick field guide to tactics:

Counterterrorism is all about going after the bad guys, often using special ops teams to kill or capture Taliban cells (a process that has gone very well in recent months, because of improvements in U.S. intelligence capability).

Counterinsurgency means protecting and providing services for the good guys, the civilian population caught in the middle of the mess. This hasn’t gone so well because (a) it takes a lot of time and (b) it requires an effective local partner. Hamid Karzai’s government is not effective.

Petraeus is the King of Counterinsurgency, having co-written the manual. But he is also a pragmatist. And after five months on the ground in Afghanistan, he apparently has decided to ramp up the special ops, perhaps hoping to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table–a result much desired by the aforementioned Karzai. This has involved the increased use of airpower, and larger scale military sweeps. (It would be interesting to know how these operations are being conducted–the McChrystal Rules of Engagement were very strict, making the use of airpower near-impossible, in order to protect the civilian population.) It will also be interesting to see if, absent a real negotiation with the Taliban, these operations will have any long-term effect on the balance of power in the Pashtun lands. I’m hoping to get back to Afghanistan soon and see for myself.

Related Topics: counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, David Petraeus, Afghanistan, Uncategorized

  • Latest on Swampland

    2012 Election May 25, 2012

    The Phony War: Obama and Romney Are Debating Character, Not Policy

    More than five months from Election Day, the back-and-forth about Mitt Romney’s record at Bain already feels played out. Unfortunately, there’s good reason to expect the campaign continues in this vein indefinitely. Neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney are terribly interested in dwelling on policy platforms. Romney’s plan to slash spending and keep taxes low on the wealthy isn’t especially popular, at least not at any level of detail beyond a blithe promise to shrink the deficit. Meanwhile, Obama’s signature first-term achievements, like health care, the stimulus and Wall Street reform, are all unpopular or tricky to sell. (The Dodd-Frank bill is the most popular of these, but hyping it means offending wealthy donors.) So what we’re getting instead is a superficial duel about character–and, worse, one that’s based on the largely false premise that the better man can better “manage” the economy back to health.

    From our Partners

    Obama Administration Blocks Global Health Fund To Fight Disease In Developing NationsHuffPost Politics

    Barack Obama May 25, 2012

    Audacity of Dope: Tales of a Toking Teenage Obama

    We knew Barack Obama smoked weed in high school because he wrote about it in his books. What we didn’t know, until Buzzfeed posted these choice nuggets (I’m so sorry) from David Maraniss’s new book on the President’s younger years, were the giggle-worthy details of his “Choom Gang” lifestyle, which are right out of a buddy stoner flick. Obama and his friends drove around the lush Hawaii countryside, hot-boxing their VW bus and re-upping with a long-haired pizza-tossing dealer named Ray, whom Obama thanked in his yearbook “for all the good times.”

  • http://jcapan.wordpress.com jcapan

    “I’m hoping to get back to Afghanistan soon and see for myself.”

    Great, b/c I like my stenography firsthand.

  • pintortwo

    “You have to recognize also that I don’t think you win this war. I think you keep fighting… This is the kind of fight we’re in for the rest of our lives and probably our kids’ lives.”
    - General David Petraeus
    (via Bob Woodward, link)

  • pintortwo

    Mr Klein, I haven’t been around lately, but, upon returning, it amazes me to see that you still don’t get it.
    .
    We are not countering terrorists- the Taliban have no history of terrorism, they didn’t collaborate with al Qaeda and they have no way of attacking us here. Further, our military will not defeat terrorism, if anything, it inspires more terrorists making us less safe (Rand, for instance, gives historical evidence showing that militarism is inneffective in combating terror and recommends a “a light U.S. military footprint or none at all” -link).
    .
    We are not countering insurgents- the Taliban are locals, we are the insurgents. They are indigenous people that resist an invading army, its military bases and the advances of an illegitimate government that we installed.
    .
    What we are doing is building a network of bases to stretch from the Horn of Africa to S Asia in order to “fight bad guys” and rouge governments there for the next 50 plus years, thereby making the region safe for capitalism and ushering in the New American Century of unipolar goodness– as envisioned by the neocons during the Clinton admin. Petraeus is making sure Obama finishes the job. The rest is a snow-job.

  • Cliff

    I’m sorry to go full metal Grammar Nazi on you, but this:
    .
    rouge governments
    .
    drives me up the wall.
    .
    It’s rogue governments.
    .
    .
    And I would argue that you can classify the Taliban as insurgents. That doesn’t necessarily make them bad guys, and it doesn’t justify an endless war.
    .
    The rest of your post I pretty much agree with.

  • tanboontee

    Precisely, Karzai’s government is ineffective. The world knows it, Americans know it, Washington knows it, who else does not?

    But is anyone doing anything about it?
    (btt1943)

  • http://derekg.wordpress.com/ Derek

    Just keep looking JK, there is bound to be a pony in there somewhere.

  • http://jcapan.wordpress.com jcapan

    I dunno Cliff. I think Grammar Nazis were rouge.

  • apr2563

    Joe, can you tell us how well the counterinsurgency has evolved in Iraq? When you return from Afghanastan, bring the troops with you? They deserve a reprieve from the carnage they have been exposed to through 2 wars supported by their government and enabled by the media.

  • Cliff

    GRAAAAAAH!

  • herby002

    jcapan,

    The Grammar Nazi government was decidedly not rouge; they were adamantly ant-rouge communists.
    Their governing philosophy was schwarz.

  • stuartzechman

    That’s right, you can have your very own “New Balance” occupation policy for only 12 to 36 MIA*, low-interest financing available for a limited time, check your Congressperson for details!
    .
    *MIA = “Months In Afghanistan” at US$6 billion dollars a month
    .
    http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/09/08/afghanistan-war-costs-jump-congressional-report-shows/

  • michaelfury

    “This has involved the increased use of airpower”

    Brilliant. No need to “protect the civilan population”, after all.

    But be sure you kill everything that moves, because any surviving “terrorists” (family of the killed/maimed) will find that pipeline a long and winding target.

    ———————————–

    “The governor said that the villagers have brought two tractor trailers full of pieces of human bodies to his office to prove the casualties that had occurred,” Mr. Farahi said. “Everyone at the governor’s office was crying, watching that shocking scene.”

    “Mr. Farahi said he had talked to someone he knew personally who had counted 113 bodies being buried, including those of many women and children. Later, more bodies were pulled from the rubble and some victims who had been taken to the hospital died, he said.”

    http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/the-gas-must-flow/

blog comments powered by Disqus