Funny how Afghanistan affects people. Josh Foust came back pessimistic as ever. For the inimitable Andrew Exum, however, the place apparently was an eye-opener of a different sort.
Exum fought in Afghanistan in 2002, but since returning from his latest civilian sojourn, the normally witty and sarcastic Abu Muqawama has turned into a walking billboard for Gen. McChrystal and his new command. We learn, for example, that McChrystal is much like Robert E. Lee, in that his “directions to allied troops with respect to civilian casualties are both morally correct and operationally wise”. Exum is “tremendously impressed by the quality of the men and women working for General McChrystal at ISAF”. And of McChrystal’s counterinsurgency skills he has this to say:
General McChrystal understands population-centric COIN. Forget all that nonsense about a guy with decades of direct-action special operations experience not being mentally limber enough to adapt to protecting the population. About five minutes into a discussion of civilian casualties in my first week in Kabul, I watched McChrystal stand up and spell out for his staff in explicit terms exactly why killing civilians makes one operationally ineffective in an environment like Afghanistan. McChrystal is not inclined to draw attention to his storied history as a special operator. But when he tells you that it’s impossible to kill your way out of this war, you believe him — because Lord knows, he’s tried.
Phew, talk about a man crush.
You know, before I went there I was arguing passionately for why it’s vital to be there and why we can win. It was seeing it first hand — more accurately, and perhaps more interestingly for this post, seeing the Army operate first hand — that turned me into an almost despairing pessimist.
Guys,
Normally I’m the negative one. I only know what I read and hear from friends about Astan (it’s not good).
But if I could shine a little light into the black cloud – let’s remember how grim it was in Iraq in 2006 and 2007. Then it got better, much more rapidly then we could have guessed.