Take the Gloves Off Against the Taliban by David Petraeus and Michael O’Hanlon, Wall Street Journal
In any counterinsurgency campaign, foreign forces helping another country must strike a balance. They must wean local forces off their dependency on outside help as rapidly as possible. But they also must not rush the job and lose what has been gained along the way—especially when a part of their core mission is to build up the indigenous police and military forces to which they seek to pass the baton.
For 10 years U.S. leaders have understood the need for this delicate balancing act in Iraq and Afghanistan, though both the Bush and Obama administrations did, in certain cases, hand off to indigenous forces and draw down more rapidly than was advisable. We are at risk of doing that again now in Afghanistan…
Comments
I read several reports this weekend about the claims a drone strike that killed Akhtar Mansoor. (At least one paper in the region claimed Mansoor was dead last month.) Then I went on line and read several biographical releases on the net including wiki and found hardly anything that would convince me Mansoor had anything to do with war crimes or murders, and the official reason given to kill him is, he was in opposition to peace. Is that a crime I don;t know about?
So if no further foundation is laid this sets a new precedent, people may be assassinated just for opposing peace?
So why haven't they taken out Putin or Assad, maybe the Ayatollah? This comes dangerously close to being a personal vendetta of the President's, by opposition to peace it might be interpreted as Obama's rendition of peace and the punishment? Death.