Someone hasn’t been reading his COIN manual. Here’s the latest NATO spin on Afghanistan:
- “Nobody expected” the Afghan elections to be free and fair. But we presided over them nonetheless because.. hey, what the hell.
- We’re fighting for a “decentralised and tribal” Afghanistan rather than to uphold a central government legitimate in the eyes of its population. In other words, we’re fighting to keep Afghanistan in chaos to prevent a stable Taliban regime succeeding it.
- To accomplish this, NATO members should be sending more troops.
I suppose you could argue that this is part of the exit strategy. NATO officials come up with such an appalling rationale for staying that it gives European member states the excuse to head home. Then the US follows, blaming the Euroweenies. Alternatively, John Robb might have made the accurate call on this.
Incidentally, I think the correct name for dubious or dodgy polls in Iran or wherever should now be “NATO standard” elections.
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