Word: successful
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...concerns by any force that says, If you limit their range of operations, then they are going to have to naturally rethink how they operate. For some, that is no change from where they have been going with this. And I think that is evident in some of the success they have had. But others may have to maybe rethink a conventional approach that they might have had before. It's a tough war, a very tough...
...there, with the clear idea that when you respond, you are going to create collateral damage. He's going to blame that on you. Even if you kill the insurgent there - and in many cases you don't, you just destroy a lot of things - you get a tactical success and near-term satisfaction because you went after the fly with the sledgehammer. What happens is, you have made the insurgency wider. You are going to run into more IEDs (improvised explosive devices), you are going to run into more insurgents, you are going to run into a more difficult...
...doing a lot of good work - and that means the ANSF, parts of the Afghanistan government, UNAMA [United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan], NGOs, doing a lot of good work - that said, I don't think it has been as well coordinated and unified as it needs to be successful. And so I wasn't surprised by that, but I was struck by the challenge of the task to pull it all together into a unified international effort. And that to me is an absolute prerequisite for success...
...going to the peace table. And you end up with a completely different outcome than you wanted. Counterinsurgency is an ongoing argument. Everything you do in an operation or influence is trying to convince the population in one way or the other. So my metric is our success in the argument. It's not the enemy killed, it's not ground taken. It's how much governance we've got and where governance goes. It's people's willingness to conduct normal lives. But here you have to know what normal is. It's not the same in Kabul...
...large part of those IED components come from Pakistan. How vital is your success here to the elimination of safe havens across the border? It's a regional problem. Our success in Afghanistan and Pakistan - they are unique situations that are linked inextricably - I think that we can't be entirely successful here unless there is some measure of success against Afghan Taliban and other al-Qaeda in Pakistan. Similarly, and I met with General [Ashfaq] Kayani yesterday, I don't think that they can be entirely successful in maintaining security in the tribal areas unless Afghanistan is a stable...