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Ellsberg: "No Success That Will Be Lasting" In Afghanistan
Newshoggers.com —
... He says that he wrote McChrystal's assessment thirty years ago, only with the names changed; that counter-insurgency cannot succeed for a foreign occupier and that there can be no success that will survive after U.S. troops leave Afghanistan.
Watch it:
Ellsberg should be followed by reading Paul McGeogh's blistering critique of McChrystal and Obama's Afghan plan, which I noted yesterday and Andrew Sullivan picked up on today.
Meanwhile, in Iraq, we're getting more signs that ...
John Podesta Points Out Bush Admin Only Spent 1 Hour on Afghanistan Report Before Handing Off
Crooks and Liars —
... and Andrew Sullivan picked up on today.
That noexistent Afghan State
Newshoggers.com —
... Commentary By Ron Beasley
While reading Steve's post below I found this by William S, Lind (via Sully): Last exit before Quagmire where he discusses the General Stanley McChrystal’s report. This is the most important statement from Lind's piece: Defects begin with the study’s failure to address Fourth Generation
war’s first and most important question: Is there a state in
Afghanistan? At times, the report appears to assume a state; elsewhere,
it speaks of the Afghan state’s weaknesses. It never addresses the main ...
Too Late, Too Late
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
Fallows notes an Australian assessment of the McChrystal report. Paul McGeogh sees the report as proof that McChrystal's proposed strategy is doomed. Money quote: "In assessing the insurgency, McChrystal declares it, or them, to be
sophisticated, organised, adaptive, determined and nuanced across all
lines of operations ... with, he goes on, the capacity to exhaust the
coalition and to prevent Kabul from governing the country. Much of his
report leads to a conclusion that it is the very opposite that applies
to Karzai and the Coalition's ...
