counterinsurgency

Sen. John Kerry urged President Obama to endorse a campaign targeted at the Pashtun areas of south and eastern Afghanistan, provided that the U.S. could also boost civilian governance and development projects to consolidated military success.

Intellectually, it makes sense, since the only reason anyone in the U.S. cares about the Taliban is because the Taliban sheltered al-Qaeda ahead of 9/11, and the continuing relationship between elements of the Taliban and al-Qaeda provides al-Qaeda in Pakistan with a degree of strategic depth in Afghanistan. Yet it’s still noteworthy that the administration [...]

One of the back stories in The Washington Post’s account of the current Afghanistan/Pakistan strategy debate presented by some anonymous administration officials is that Gen. Stanley McChrystal took the playbook set by the Bruce Riedel-penned March white paper on strategy for the region and started changing the plan on the ground.
Back in Washington, some civilians [...]

Throughout the February and March debates about Afghanistan, I wrote what I understood the emerging Obama administration approach to be: a counterinsurgency approach in Afghanistan to achieve a counterterrorism goal in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That view was informed by a variety of talks with administration officials. And when Obama unveiled his strategy, in a speech [...]

If it’s true, as reported, that the question of the CIA’s drone strikes against al-Qaeda in Pakistan is bolstering support for the so-called counterterrorism option in the Obama administration’s Afghanistan/Pakistan strategy, then tomorrow’s meeting at the White House looks, from the attendance sheet, like it’ll debate precisely that issue. Here’s the just-released list of scheduled [...]

The Cable’s Josh Rogin interviews Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Kit Bond (R-Mo.), who attended this afternoon’s White House meeting on Afghanistan/Pakistan strategy. Not a lot of detail emerged, but this is Bond’s takeaway:
Obama pledged not to return to a counterterrorism approach, where troops “shoot and then fall back to the base,” Bond said.
Obama told [...]

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, yesterday clarified that he accepts the call from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and national security adviser Jim Jones to keep his advice to the president on Afghanistan strategy private. And his aides further specified to me that he doesn’t have any additional public speaking [...]

Busy day for Defense Secretary Robert Gates. In the afternoon, he’ll meet with President Obama for a private White House session in which he’s likely to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan. In the evening, he’ll tape a joint appearance at George Washington University with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton about the future of American power. [...]

This is a very big deal. The Obama administration has been pressing Pakistan to expand its military successes against the Taliban in the Swat Valley for months. Now, it’s about to go down.
And look at what The New York Times credits as a major reason why:
Now there is a sense within the military establishment that [...]

The official readout from yesterday’s White House meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy was predictably uninformative. (”When it come to decisions as important as keeping this country safe and putting our troops into harm’s way, the President has made it clear that he will rigorously assess our progress,” etc.) But remember how I called Defense [...]