AC: "They want you to go
home. But they don't want you to leave the wreck that
is currently Afghanistan."
Friday, September 11, 2009
Length: 5:01
LARGE (57.9 MB)
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SMALL (6.2 MB)
Another discussion about the state of the war in
Afghanistan, this time with John King asking
Michael about issues on the ground and David Gergen
about political realities. (At one point Michael
asks someone on his end whether the other panelist
is Peter Bergen or David Gergen. Ahh, live
television...)
JOHN KING:
Let's talk strategy now. Michael Ware is in Kabul.
He's been out and about in the country all week,
including out on in patrol in Kandahar, where he
narrowly survived a close call with a roadside bomb.
And, in Boston, senior political analyst David
Gergen.
Michael let's start with the news that Defense
Secretary Gates is considering sending as many as
3,000 troops in the short term. There are larger
troop requests perhaps in the future, but 3,000
troops in the short term to help deal with the threat
of roadside bombs.
Would that be enough, Michael, to make a difference
in the security situation?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not even close,
John. That's a drop in the bucket. America does
desperately need more soldiers here. It's right,
there are not enough Afghan troops, nor international
coalition troops, to even put a dent in the Taliban
war machine.
This is not a war America is ever going to win in the
classic military sense. The real intention here is to
put military pressure on the Taliban that will then
parlay into gains on the political front or at the
negotiating table. And, right now, America isn't
doing that. All it's doing is storing -- stirring the
Taliban hornet's nest in Helmand Province.
But there may be a solution on the horizon to fill
this troop dividend, this gap, this troop gap. What's
happening here on the ground, is American commanders
-- and I can tell you from the cabinet level here in
Kabul from the Afghan government, the Afghan
government has also become a part of this -- they're
looking to learn the lessons of Iraq and bring them
to Afghanistan.
There's already an Afghan government pilot program
under way to recruit U.S.-backed tribal militias to
put them into the fight as a force multiplier to fill
the vacuum in areas where American troops cannot
fight and to go out and kill the Taliban or deny them
terrain, as only the tribes and the veterans of the
Afghan wars know how.
This is going to be similar to what we saw with the
Awakening Councils in Iraq, in Anbar, that turned on
al Qaeda, killed them, and came on to the American
government payroll -- John.
KING: So, David, you heard Michael Ware with the
calculation overseas. What about the political
calculation here?
Now, you have Speaker Pelosi, Senator Carl Levin, the
chairman of the Arms Services Committee, saying, I'm
not sure about sending more troops, and at a time
when we also know in the polls that the American
people are increasingly opposed. Does the president
have a choice here?
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It is a
perilous choice, John. He's going to have a choice
and he's going to have to make a very tough one. And,
this time, he cannot split the difference. He can't
sort of come down, well, I will satisfy people with
sort of plan B, which is sort of halfway in, not
halfway out. He has either got to go in full and big,
or he probably has to pull back some. And, you know,
if he pulls back some, he's going to satisfy a great
majority of American people who have turned against
this war, his own Democratic base, which has turned
against the war.
But others will say, those are not red flags flying
up there. Those are white flags flying up there on
Capitol Hill among Democrats, and you have got to
stay in, you have got to defeat the Taliban, and,
especially, you have got to make sure the al Qaeda
doesn't become a, you know, a resurgent force.
But I can't emphasize enough, John, this is not one
-- you know, there is a temptation in every White
House to say, well, let's split the difference. But,
in this situation, if you just go in meddling, you
are you're neither going to win, nor are you going to
lose. You're just going to stretch out a bad
situation.
So, if you're going to do it, you have got to do it
fully. And that probably is going to require a new
strategic review.
KING: And, Michael Ware, forget...
WARE: Is it Peter or David Gergen?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: David Gergen.
KING: Michael, forget the commanders and forget the
military calculation. If you walked into the
marketplace in any Afghan city and asked an everyday
member of the populace, "What do you want from the
United States?" what would they say?
WARE: They want you to go home. But they don't want
you to leave the wreck that is currently Afghanistan.
First and foremost, the Afghan villager, the ordinary
Afghan citizen in a busy capital street like this
just wants a life, John. They want security. They
want to know that they can go to their village and
grow their crops and do their business, whatever it
might be, without fear of interference from either
coalition bombs, nor the Taliban coming to them at
night, demanding they take care of Taliban wounded,
offer shelter, hide weapons, let their soldiers,
fighters hide among their population, while the
Americans search.
They also want a government. And they don't have one.
I mean, this state is in -- this country is in a
state of national political limbo. They don't even
know who the president is, after last month's
presidential election was bogged down in corruption
allegations.
And no matter who comes in, be it the incumbent,
President Hamid Karzai, or his challenger, to the
Afghan people, it's one bunch of crooks and their
warlord cronies vs. another bunch of crooks and their
warlord cronies.
They want a lot more from America, and they want it
quick, and then they want you out -- John.
KING: All right, Michael Ware in Afghanistan --
Michael, thank you.