In April 2007, during a Primary debate in South Carolina, Barack Obama came up with a doozey that never received the level of scrutiny it deserved. He said
Afghanistan is an area where we should be focusing. NATO has made real contributions there. Unfortunately, because of the distraction of Iraq, we have not finished the job in terms of making certain that we are driving back the Taliban, stabilizing the Karzai government, capturing bin Laden and making sure that we’ve rooted out terrorism in that region.
So, the U.S. has let NATO down in Afghanistan, by getting distracted in Iraq. As to the first half of that charge: Many NATO countries have, of course, prohibited their forces in Afghanistan from engaging in any activities other than stability and civilian operations, leaving much of the dangerous heavy lifting to the U.S.
As to the second half of the charge: It looks like “the distraction of Iraq” has led to some critical counterinsurgency innovations that are now bearing fruit in Afghanistan.
There is a story in today’s New York Times about Company C of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, and how they are applying the lessons learned in Iraq’s Anbar Province to the Garmser District of Afghanistan — and seeing results. The Marines drove the Taliban out of the area with unprecedented speed, and now, as they did in Anbar (and a great many other areas of Iraq), they are getting out into the scared population in order to garner trust among civilians. From the Times:
In this village, only the poorest laborers and farmers have started filtering back, Lieutenant Matzke said, adding, “These people are completely broken.” They refused all assistance at first, he said, but after talking for a couple of hours they admitted they could use the help, but were afraid to accept it for fear of the Taliban.
The people were glad when the Taliban were driven away, the marines said, and that is a sentiment they need to nurture. “We need to convince the people we are here to help, and to exploit the fact that we can help,” Captain Moder said.
As a first step, the marines promised to provide a strong security cordon so those villagers who had fled could return without fear to rebuild their homes and reopen the bazaar.
The new bonds have have made it possible for Marines to implement new security measures — such as photographs, fingerprints, and iris scans – that will help civilians and soldiers identify Taliban operatives in their midst.
It would be specious (and unforgivably callous) to argue that the blood and treasure lost in Iraq represent some kind of dues paid for the opportunity to win in Afghanistan, but the fact remains — military ingenuity is born of the necessity to counter unexpected challenges. In truth, the revamped counterinsurgency strategy developed during the Iraq War is proving to be the most lethal tool in the larger War on Terror. The Obama Plan, of ducking the hardest challenges and simply redeploying troops, is no plan at all. Ironically, Barack Obama said it best: “When you have no overarching strategy, there is no clear definition of success.” General David Petraeus and John McCain have a strategy and a definition. Does he?
