Oh that’s just something….amazing!

It’s textbook cognitive dissonance. McC has testified to understanding every theoretical truth about the situation: that COIN requires a government considered legitimate by the people, a committed and willing indigenous anti-insurgent force, a troop ratio of 20:1000 populace, and in general that there has to be a viable government and civil society on whose behalf you’re countering those insurgents. Otherwise how can your “countering” have any traction?

But a guy like this nods at all that, then looks the opposite right in the eye and says it’s not the opposite. There’s always some qualification he can latch onto, some reason why everything he claimed in theory to agree with doesn’t apply in this case.

And if that fails, it’s time to just clap your hands over your ears and shout “I can’t hear you!”, like in the last quote above.

My favorite is the one from the NYT magazine a few weeks back:

What if the Afghan government isn’t legitimate?

“Then we just have to not be associated with that illegitimacy!”

But you just said…….(At that point I’d be banging my head on the desk as well if I could still be shocked by these idiots.)

And Obama has to be the same way. Especially because McC is his guy.

And then we hear how they’re all reading the right books about Vietnam. Some wonder if they might learn a lesson from that. I wouldn’t count on it. I think when you’re already committed to the great mistake, reading about that mistake is probably more likely to just hone your cognitive dissonance talents.

If you read about it and assured yourself on how you’re not going to make the same mistakes they did, and anyway that’s there’s no comparison between the two situations, you can sleep even easier for the time being as you blunder ahead.

By then everything just reinforces you in your dogmas, even direct contradiction.

I think they’re using a different textbook.

Create compliance through torture and terrorism on a massive scale and applied arbitrarily. It doesn’t require as many troops but does require more media control.

Thanks, Jim. Recommended.

How many failures does it take for a General to get fired?

We don’t yet know. However, we do know it takes only the failure of the person in the Oval office in order to continue the status quo in this mess.

Reminds me of this.

I think when you’re already committed to the great mistake, reading about that mistake is probably more likely to just hone your cognitive dissonance talents.

Yes, indeed. McChrystal is above all committed. Thanks for a wonderful summary.

As Rumsfeld responded,”Well, that is quite a statement.” If only Kennedy were still around to deliver the same “Isn’t it time you resigned?” speech to McChrystal.

But HE’s A General they know everything. What training makes any General able to know how to manage Countries or people. They are taught to fight wars, not to create fabulous Countries out almost nothing.

They can train our guys to die in two weeks, but can’t train those people in eight years.

“An Afghan policeman has shot dead five British soldiers and seriously wounded five more at a checkpoint in Afghanistan, suggesting the Taliban may have infiltrated the Afghan police force”

Actually, Taliban infiltration is probably the best-case scenario and the one that our war managers are anxious to promote. If the Taliban have to infiltrate, then the Afghan force is largely sound and pro-Western.

If we look at the history of open-ended occupations and COIN campaigns, however, there is another scenario that is perhaps more likely: we have reached the point where even our nominal allies hate us. They may still hate the Taliban and they may well continue to fight them. But they hate us too and mayber even more. So every so often a policeman or soldier has had more than he can stomach and shoots up a bunch of us.

If this is indeed the situation, things are going to get worse steadily as our own troops become increasingly fearful, trigger-happy, and angry.

There is no way to put a nice face on the reality: we need to cut (our losses) and run. Now. The only thing worse for our security than leaving is staying.

A MEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All CIA agents involved in the kidnapping and rendition of Egyptian cleric Abu Omar in 2003 have been convicted in Italy.(AP)Maybe this will help stop the illegal renditions that are still happening. Finally, a court has said ‘no you can’t’ to the CIA. I’m sure COIN enthusiast McChrystal is not pleased by this verdict.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33620676

They are trained, but many take their training and weapons and join the Taliban. It is not unlike gang members coming home from Irag and Afghanistan and using their skills on the streets of America. Here is an example of what goes on when American and Afghan culture collides.
*****************
“An Afghan army commander whom American troops had dubbed “Snoop” was angry, accusing a U.S. dog handler of allowing his Labrador retriever to sniff a copy of the Quran while searching a cluster of villages that U.S. forces suspect is a Taliban stronghold.

Speaking through an interpreter, Wyant looked evenly at the Afghan commander.

“You tell him that’s not going to happen,” he said. “You tell him that shooting that dog would be just like shooting an American soldier.”

Wyant and Snoop struck a compromise. The handler and his dog would not search any more houses without an Afghan interpreter present. Later, after Snoop and his men had moved on, the interpreter told Wyant that they had actually threatened to kill not only the dog, but all of the U.S. soldiers in the village as well.

“Well, I know that isn’t going to happen,” Wyant said. “We’re much better shots than they are.” ”

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=65855

The just following orders defense didn’t work.
************
“Lady, a veteran of covert CIA operations in Latin America during Iran-Contra, was given the longest sentence, but his whereabouts are currently unknown. Lady said of the kidnapping in an interview last spring, “Of course it was an illegal operation. But that’s our job.” He also claimed, “”I am not guilty. I am only responsible for following an order I received from my superiors.” ”

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/italian-court-convicts-25-americans-kidnapping-cia-rendition-case/

They are trained but not converted in other words. We are trying to make a people who are so wrapped up in their religion, that they don’t know what’s in their best interests. We want to convert them to our way of thinking, acting, and believing. Like they say, “rots of ruck.”

We aren’t like them if one of them pissed on the bible, we would say AH, “Why did You do That.”