Afghanistan: Lessons from a Russian General

Just as Iraq started to stabilize, Afghanistan went down the tubes. Now, we are contemplating a "surge" there as well, as it worked in Iraq. Of course, Afghanistan is notoriously hard to invade or control, as the Russians found out.

The advice from a leading Russian general in the Afghan war is as follows:
You can expand your presence, but what will change? I think you need to do three things. First, create statehood. Set up a popular authority that would deal with corruption and social issues. Second, a combat-able armed force should be created in Afghanistan. And an economy should be created to help people. If you deploy 200,000 troops there, daytime is your time, you're in command. At night, the Taliban comes and they are in command.

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