On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 1:07 PM, Sam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 12:41 PM, Judah McAuley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> GEN. MCKIERNAN: Well, I think the similarity is the fact that we need
> to leverage the tribal system in Afghanistan as was done in Iraq, as
> -- for a community, bottom-up based approach to security and
> connection with the government. That part's the same.
> http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4297
Well that's pretty disingenuous of you Sam. The question was on the
surge and you quote a bit where McKiernan says that part of it is the
same. Which I might possibly be convinced of, except that the question
he is answering (which you notably did not include) has nothing to do
with the surge.
The full Q/A:
--- start quote--
Q Thank you, sir. I'm wondering if any thought was being given to
migrating the lessons of the Iraq Awakening to Afghanistan to get some
of these tribal leaders to have their fighting forces work with you,
either because it's the right thing or just for the money, or is the
situation so different that that's not applicable?
GEN. MCKIERNAN: Well, I think the similarity is the fact that we need
to leverage the tribal system in Afghanistan as was done in Iraq, as
-- for a community, bottom-up based approach to security and
connection with the government. That part's the same.
What I find in Afghanistan, however, is a degree of
complexity in the tribal system which is much greater than what I
found in Iraq years ago.
And I also find that of the over 400 major tribal
networks inside of Afghanistan, they have been largely, as I said
earlier, traumatized by over 30 years of war, so a lot of that
traditional tribal structure has broken down.
But the question and the need to engage the tribes, to
engage tribal authorities and use those values at a local level to
enhance security, governance, needs of the people to be able to
express grievances with the government of Afghanistan, I think, is an
important concept and one that we have to continue to work in support
of the government of Afghanistan.
--end quote--
So the question was about whether we could convince tribes in
Afghanistan to fight with us using money or a sense of responsibility.
The question wasnt' about the surge at all. And the answer was, yes in
some ways, we definitely need to develop a bottom up solution. But the
situation overall is substantially different than in Iraq.
Judah
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