Did Obama Just Declare Victory in Afghanistan?

However, Obama?s pullout?and its recent acceleration?also stems from a conclusion that the U.S. war strategy hasn?t succeeded and is extremely unlikely to succeed any time soon. When Obama decided in December 2009 to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, he did so as part of a shift to a new counterinsurgency strategy, as recommended by the top commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal (modeled in part on the strategy employed in Iraq by Gen. David Petraeus, who would later replace McChrystal). The core idea of counterinsurgency (COIN) is not so much to chase after bad guys (though it does involve some of that) but rather to protect the population?to live among the people, in their neighborhoods, and thus earn their trust, which will embolden them to provide intelligence on where the bad guys are, as the challenge in fighting insurgents isn?t killing them but finding them. But an equally important element of this strategy is to create a zone of security, so the government (with outside help) can provide basic services to the people and thus bolster their support?which will in turn dry up support for the insurgents.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=7f1bffe4ee10d35e5e63755dc504046e

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