How “Counterinsurgency” Became a Dirty Word
17th March 2011
The central theme of Obama’s Wars, Bob Woodward’s account of the Obama administration’s Afghan policy debates, is the ongoing battle between Obama’s military and civilian advisers. The military advisers — Generals David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal, along with Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs — believe that a counterinsurgency strategy, which helped reverse the deteriorating military situation in Iraq in 2007, could do the same in Afghanistan. The civilian advisers — Vice President Joe Biden and other White House officials — suggest that Vietnam is a more apt analogy for Afghanistan and a quagmire a likelier outcome if counterinsurgency strategy is applied there.
Hm, let’s see — who shall we listen to about running a war, David Petraeus or Joe Biden? Boy, that’s a puzzler.