Dan Rather recently visited the frontlines in Eastern Afghanistan near Pakistan's border, an area which has seen some of the most brutal attacks from Taliban insurgents. It's also an area not too distant from today’s bloodshed, as a group of suicide bombers attacked police headquarters in the city of Gardez.
Apparently aimed at a training class of Afghan police and their foreign mentors, the attack led to a long firefight that paralyzed the city. At least two Taliban were killed while four Afghan officers and one civilian were wounded. One of the key components of the U.S. war strategy in Afghanistan is to ensure enough Afghan soldiers are trained so that the U.S. can begin to withdraw by July 2011.
Daljit Dhaliwal, the host of World Focus, interviewed Dan Rather tonight about his 11th journey to Afghanistan as a reporter. His first trip was 30 years ago right after the Soviet invasion. In this video clip, Mr. Rather discusses U.S. strategy, including what has worked and what the U.S. has missed so far:
Strategic Shift
Rather said General Stanley McChrystal has shifted U.S. strategy during the summer from “we will fight al-Qaeda and its allies wherever they are” to protecting the population centers because the former strategy spread resources too thin.
Mr. Rather believes the Taliban has had momentum for the past year and a half, and we need to regain this momentum with the 30,000-troop surge. The General’s plan is to provide security while building governance from the village level on up and developing the Afghan economy.
Strategic Failure
When asked what we have missed so far Rather said we failed to understand that al-Qaeda is not based in Afghanistan, or any physical location for that matter - it’s a worldwide, internet-based movement. If anything, Rather strongly suggested that the fulcrum of the war has transitioned from Afghanistan into Pakistan.
Rather saved his most scathing criticism of the U.S. strategy for the Karzai administration, saying that the Afghanistan government that the U.S. is supporting is corrupt, dysfunctional, and reeks of mismanagement and cronyism, and is a huge barrier for the U.S. to accomplish its goals.
Mr. Rather has been beating this drum about the Karzai regime regularly lately, making a similar remark a few weeks ago to FOX’s Neil Cavuto. Rather stressed that no amount of soldiers and no amount of training of afghan army, police and border patrol can stop the corruption of the Afghanistan government. He said the corruption in Kabul most stop abruptly – not slowly over time, or else the U.S. will not achieve its minimum objectives. He also said this reform must start at the top and works its way right down to the tribal level and the warlord level.
Related Articles
Hamid Karzai’s multiple personalities: Afghanistan’s man in the middle
Obama strikes back: U.S. drones kill 17 extremists in Pakistan
Flight of the Osprey: the controversial aircraft's debut in Afghanistan (Photo Essay)
British don't want to repeat the 1842 slaughter in Afghanistan
Afghanistan snapshots: war, protest and civilian casualties (slideshow)
Comments