Winning the War in Afghanistan
An Oil Spot Plus Strategy for Coalition Forces
by Dr. Karl A. Slaikeu, Small Wars Journal
Winning the War in Afghanistan (Full PDF Article)
While granting that Afghanistan is centuries behind Iraq in terms of infrastructure, the central question remains: can we build on the successes and lessons learned in Iraq and a half century of other counterinsurgency (COIN) wars to emerge victorious over the Taliban and al Qaeda? Or, will we go the way of Great Britain and Russia, who left Afghanistan in defeat? This paper offers a plan for victory that builds on classic COIN--the oil spot or ink spot strategy--customized to address the unique challenges of the Afghan area of operations (AO).
