Recommended Reading
There is now a clear path to ending the war in Afghanistan; the question is whether political leaders can take advantage of McChrystal’s battlefield success. If Washington can turn the changing balance of power on the battlefield into a negotiating strategy that acknowledges the need to offer insurgent leaders more than just the opportunity to lay down their arms, the United States could succeed in Afghanistan in a way that neither proponents nor opponents of the Afghan surge imagined last fall. For the first time since the United States intervened in Afghanistan in 2001, it is possible to outline a coherent political-military plan that would yield, if not a clear-cut victory, at least an outcome that enhances U.S. security.
UNRELATED SUBJECTS:
There’s more than one way to skin a cat. With climate change as damaged goods for justifying social engineering and tax-farming on a global scale by an unaccountable IGO class, the scientist-political activist public intellectuals and their bureaucratic allies will be increasingly putting their efforts here.
Fabius Maximus – Starfor looks at Mexico: “The Struggle for Balance” and Freidman of Stratfor writes about “Mexico and the Failed State Revisited”
FM also includes a bibliography of Mexico related links. Comments are shut off, not sure why though if FM’s getting spammed like I have been lately I don’t blame him.
After a period of dormancy, the IO/Black Propaganda boys with an eye for talent at Swedish Meatballs Confidential are back in business!
That’s it!
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historyguy99:
April 11th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
Thanks for the reading list!
The Atlantic Council’s "Watching Karzai, Seeing Diem" caught my attention because it was what I was thinking as the Karzai-Washington duel heated up last week. After reading the article, it seems that we seem to continue to try and make countries and their leaders in our own 21st century image, forgetting our own rocky single party beginning complete with voter restrictions, a treasonous Vice President and rule by the few.
For a different take on Diem and our involvement in his demise, look to:
Mark Moyer’s Triumph Forsaken.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521757630/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
zen:
April 12th, 2010 at 3:10 am
Hi HG99,
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"forgetting our own rocky single party beginning complete with voter restrictions, a treasonous Vice President and rule by the few."
.
Our guys stole a lot less 😉
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On a serious note, you bring up a good point. Full liberal democracy is a six sigma concept and Afghanistan can probably succeed quite well on 3 sigma. Unfortunately, Karzai might represent only 1.5 sigma. He’s not lavishly torturing and murdering his enemies like Diem and Nhu or his own Afghan predecessors, but compared to Karzai’s Kabul regime, Saigon was a model of competence and incorruptibility.
.
This may be the paradox of COIN – regimes that are popular, legitimate and politically astute don’t find themselves in situations where they need to wage COIN ( they might have to do counterterrorism against radical political sects – Baader Meinhoff, Red Brigades, Provo IRA, Japanese Red Army – but not insurgencies on their home ground)
Joseph Fouche:
April 12th, 2010 at 5:30 am
Rufus Phillips was an Army and later CIA officer who was assigned to the initial military mission to Saigon in 1954. He actually thought Diem was salvageable as long as Mr. And Mrs. Nhu was removed from the scene. He was sorry when Diem was done in. This talk he gave at the Pritzker Military Library is interesting:
http://www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org/events/2008/11-22-rufus-phillips.jsp