Word: afghanization
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...drain the hatred and give Afghanistan the room to build institutions and an economy that just might, one day, heal the wounds of 30 years of war, President Barack Obama and his generals are shifting strategies. Their new doctrine emphasizes protecting the Afghan people over killing insurgents. "What we really want is the equivalent of a peaceful takeover, where the Taliban are forced out," McChrystal told TIME. Three days later, the general issued a "tactical directive" to ISAF forces reinforcing the point: "We will not win based on the number of Taliban we kill," McChrystal wrote, "but instead...
...Second Afghan War The offensive in Helmand is the first step in what has become America's second Afghan war. The Marines have met little resistance, although U.S. deaths spiked elsewhere in the country. On July 6, seven U.S. troops were killed outside Helmand - the highest daily toll in nearly a year. Using an age-old strategy, the insurgents seem to have melted away when pressured, only to pop up and attack elsewhere. In Helmand, U.S. troops will set up small outposts instead of pulling back when the operation is done. They'll live near the locals and offer protection...
Instead of relying on brute force, McChrystal has to find more subtle ways of dealing with an Afghan insurgency that grows out of a patchwork of motivations based on tribal allegiances, Islamic fundamentalism and the strategies of warlords eager to keep what has been theirs for generations. "I am not sure," McChrystal says, "there are two different people out there with the same reason for the fight." He has to untangle the various threads in this skein and then determine what action - economic development, strong government, death - works best in each case. (Read "Why the Pentagon Axed Its Afghanistan Warlord...
Long Career, Fresh Eyes In Washington there had been a sense for months that the Afghan train was off the track and that McKiernan - an able armor officer - wasn't the right fit. On May 11, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, with Obama's blessing, tapped McChrystal for the Afghan post, saying "fresh eyes" were needed...
...stocked by his wife with serious tomes on Pakistan, Lincoln and Vietnam. Right now, he is reading William Maley's 2002 book The Afghanistan Wars, a catalog of the long list of British failures in Afghanistan. McChrystal famously eats little during the day, recently only picking at an Afghan spread featuring four kinds of meat. To the chagrin of Afghans, who see drinking tea as an inalienable human right, he scrapped a morning tea break at a recent security briefing in Kandahar, and aides grumble, nicely, that he sees others' demands for lunch as a sign of weakness...