Counterinsurgenterrorism

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Counterinsurgenterrorism
Obama's new policy for Afghanistan tries to steer a middle course.
By Fred Kaplan
Posted Friday, March 27, 2009, at 7:00 PM ET



U.S. Marines In Afghanistan. Click image to expand.Afghan children reach for candy from U.S. Marines on patrol If you're confused about President Barack Obama's "comprehensive strategy" for Afghanistan and Pakistan, which he laid out this morning, don't feel dense. I'm confused, too, and so are several military experts I've been talking with.

The president seems to have taken a middle course in the debate among his advisers, forging bits and pieces of both sides' proposals into a consensus policy that has something to please almost everybody. Presidents who do this usually stumble into disaster. But in this case Obama may have hit the right balance.

And yet there are puzzles and contradictions. There's clearly still much for Obama and the NATO allies—and everyone else concerned with the region—to work out. The debate is not over. The strategy is still a work in progress, as is the war.

The internal debate leading up to today's announcement pitted officials who advocated a broad counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy against those calling for a more direct, less ambitious counterterrorism (CT) campaign.

The COIN-dinistas, as some call them, argue that the best way to defeat insurgents is to protect the population and provide basic services, thus drying up the insurgents' base of support and strengthening loyalty to the government. Going after the terrorists directly must be part of any approach, they agree. But if that's the central element, it only gives the bad guys the initiative, lets them melt into the landscape, and kills too many civilians caught in the crossfire, thus alienating the people we're trying to help.

Those more strictly CT advocates, led I'm told by Vice President Joe Biden, concede that the COIN camp has a point. But they say that following that course would require too many troops, too much money, and way too much time—more of all three than the United States and NATO could muster—and that the insurgents might still win anyway. Better to focus U.S. efforts more narrowly on simply fighting the insurgents themselves, especially in the border areas with Pakistan.

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http://www.slate.com/id/2214726/pagenum/all/#p2