"In June, Petraeus was appointed by President Barack Obama to replace former Gen. Stanley McChrystal as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Petraeus had previously served as the commander of the Multi-National Force-Iraq in 2006, where he was seen as the one who turned the tide of violence in that nation and could do the same in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan -- a country which has defeated every foreign army that ever entered it -- may be the ultimate test. After nine years of war, the Afghans' support of U.S. presence in their country has dwindled, according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll. Since last year, Afghans' confidence that U.S. and NATO forces can provide security and stability in their area has also dropped.
But Petraeus is a different kind of general, fighting a different kind of war. The counterinsurgency strategy largely authored and being implemented now by Petraeus is based on the idea that wars cannot be won with bullets alone, but instead through the hearts and the minds of the local population. Human terrain is the decisive terrain.
To Petraeus, this means gaining the trust of the local population, opening schools, teaching farmers new techniques, helping businesses grow, bolstering the government to provide basic services to citizens, and ultimately, keeping the peace to keep it from becoming a launching pad for terrorists."
Thanks Fayrouz for posting.
3 comments :
He's a real hero. I hope he succeeds in Afghanistan too.
'In Mosul, a city of nearly two million people, Petraeus and the 101st employed classic counterinsurgency methods to build security and stability, including conducting targeted kinetic operations and using force judiciously, jump-starting the economy, building local security forces, staging elections for the city council within weeks of their arrival, overseeing a program of public works, reinvigorating the political process,[48][49][50] and launching 4,500 reconstruction projects.[51] This approach can be attributed to Petraeus, who had been steeped in nation-building during his previous tours in nations such as Bosnia and Haiti and thus approached nation-building as a central military mission and who was "prepared to act while the civilian authority in Baghdad was still getting organized," according to Michael Gordon of The New York Times.[52] Some Iraqis gave Petraeus the nickname 'King David,'[48][53] which was later adopted by some of his colleagues.[54][55][56] Newsweek has stated that "It's widely accepted that no force worked harder to win Iraqi hearts and minds than the 101st Air Assault Division led by Petraeus." '
Dolly, you don't like Petraeus because he decimated your beloved Al Qaeda in Iraq.
He did good things for ordinary Iraqis. What did Al Qaeda do to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Iraqis?
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