Counterintuitive counterinsurgency
As the Obama administration debates whether to stick with the counterinsurgency strategy for Afghanistan, opponents point to that nation's flawed presidential election as a reason why this approach cannot work. Counterinsurgency is premised, they argue, on the presence of a legitimate national government that can win allegiance from local populations. Given credible allegations of rampant abuse in Afghanistan's August election, President Hamid Karzai's ... Full Story »
Posted by Derek Hawkins - via NewsRack (Afghanistan), Memeorandum
Prolonging the US military presence in Iraq, rather than making deals with Syria and Iran, was a colossal blunder by G W Bush, wasting hundreds of billions of US taxpayer dollars and denying the US the opportunities normal relations with Syria and Iran would have provided. No stability in Afghanistan will be achieved without substantial help from Iran.