It’s a resistance that Obama seems to share.A new book based on secret documents, private emails, and interviews with more than one hundred key characters is taking a closer look at a key group of military figures like General David Petraeus, John Nagl and H. We “will not, and cannot, provide a blank check.”īiden’s argument against an all-out COIN strategy stemmed from caution about getting sucked into a possible quagmire-a resistance to uncontrolled escalation. “We will not blindly stay the course,” he said, in a clear jab at his predecessor.

Obama is saying that what he does a year from now depends, in large part, on what happens between now and then. But in the broader context, it’s only reasonable. In one sense, this is worrisomely open-ended. Holbrooke added that the strategy itself is “a framework within which there’s plenty of flexibility to bring in ideas which are not in this report.” (“None of the steps I’ve outlined … should be taken by America alone,” he said in his speech.)Īt a press conference after Obama’s speech, Bruce Riedel, who led the White House strategic review on the new policy, admitted that specific benchmarks haven’t yet been defined.

If things go well, he still might not shift toĬOIN, but maybe he’ll be better-positioned to persuade other governments to join the effort. But it’s a fair guess that one thing he won’t do is send the level of troops or spend the amount of money required for a full-blown counterinsurgency campaign. He seems to be the other victor, besides Biden, in the bureaucratic battle.) (Japan is paying the entire Afghan military payroll for the next six months, as a start.) Once local forces are able to provide security on their own, we can leave-that’s the “exit strategy.” (Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has long argued that we should spend more on training allied armies than on fighting their wars ourselves. Obama also wants the United States and its allies to finance the accelerated growth of Afghan security forces to 134,000 soldiers and 82,000 police by 2011. (Several senior Army officers don’t like the idea at all.) The brigade will split up into small teams-of a dozen or so soldiers-each of which will be “partnered” with an Afghan unit, to train and “mentor” their forces in the field. A combat brigade does not generally go to a war zone just to train the local forces. Army’s 82 nd Airborne Division-for the sole purpose of training Afghan security forces. The new element on the military side of Obama’s strategy is the deployment of an additional 4,000 troops-the 4 th brigade of the U.S.

The Insurgents by Fred Kaplan