Word: understands
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...impact, and what can I do about it? And you have got to think, How do they perceive it? Do they know we made a mistake, or do they think we don't care? And so we have to communicate that to them in a way that is understandable. And we have to understand that they don't understand. If we just say, "Mistake, sorry," that is different. And then you have to look at your own forces as well, because the impact of making a mistake with huge consequences affects the force. It can make you less confident...
...More in general, what did your previous time in the country teach you? Because I got to see a fair amount of the country and the focus on the gathering of the operations enabled by intelligence, it was the need to understand what was happening. The focus on not looking at the superficial or most obvious. It's the trying to get several layers down into what happened. Because as we would try to conduct operations in an area, the most obvious was usually the most incorrect. So you had to get down to what the motivation of somebody...
...understand you have the new Kindle. What are you reading? The Afghan Wars, from 2002. I listen to most books on my iPod. I listen when I work out, and I read when I have time. My wife puts all the books on my Kindle...
...choice between two more divisions or 1,000 people who spoke Pashto and Dari and had a passion for this place, I would absolutely take the 1,000. Actually, I'd even take 500 over those two divisions. Because that is the leverage here. It's the people who understand the situation. It's not blunt instruments that work. You do need some straight military boots on the ground, numbers to provide, so it can't be all just expertise. But at the end of the day, it has to be an Afghan solution, and for us to help...
...certainly wasn't Islamic extremism. And we told them we were going to bring them a road. And they said, "Oh no, no roads. If you put a road here, people will drive up and take our timber." Right away that teaches you that if you don't understand, and you put in a road - just like Greg Mortenson found out [when] he wanted to build a school but the villagers needed a bridge - sometimes you have to stop and figure things out. They are not illogical. They are rational. So what they want and why they do things...