AC: "You have seen the
Taliban here. It is an evolving enemy."
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Length: 5:08
LARGE (59.4 MB)
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SMALL (6.2 MB)
Anderson Cooper holds a "Strategy Session" with
David Gergen as well as Michael, who is in an
unspecified location in southern Afghanistan. It
was not quite 7am there, and it looks like Michael
is heading out for a long day of work. [We now
know he was in Kandahar, and later this day the
truck he was riding in would hit an IED.]
ANDERSON
COOPER: President Obama has a new problem in the war
in Afghanistan tonight: public opinion. A new
CNN/Opinion Research poll shows 57 percent against
the war. That is up 11 percent from April.
And the new numbers come with a new all-time high in
casualties. At least 47 U.S. troops died in
Afghanistan in August, making it the deadliest month
since the battle began eight years ago.
Making matters worse, the U.S. commander on the front
line said it's time for a revised strategy, a
different approach to the fighting, and a majority of
Americans calling for our troops to come home --
plenty of challenges for the president. Let's talk
about them.
Joining us now for our "Strategy Session," senior
political analyst David Gergen, and, in Afghanistan,
Michael Ware.
Michael, General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S.
commander in Afghanistan, submitted a report this
week assessing the situation in Afghanistan. It's not
public, but sources say he is calling for a change in
strategy. Do you think -- what, do you think it's
going to be more troop increases? Would that actually
help?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I certainly
know that more troops are needed.
I mean, it's very difficult for these American
generals to try and fight this war with their hands
tied behind their back politically. Now, we all know
how sensitive troop numbers are here in Afghanistan.
I mean, no one wants 68,000 troops to be here by the
end of the year, let alone 80,000 or more, whatever
it might take.
So no one is rushing to bring troops here. But the
way America is set up to fight this battle as it
stands in Afghanistan, it can't win. So, some kind of
change is needed -- Anderson.
COOPER: David Gergen, how concerned are you about the
situation on the ground there?
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I'm
not as concerned as those are to the people at the
president's left in the Democratic Party.
You know, that poll showing 57 percent all Americans
are opposed to this, Anderson, among Democrats, that
number is 73 percent in the CNN poll. So, you have
got a lot of Democrats to President Obama's left who
would like to pull out. There are even some
conservatives, like George Will, who called for
pulling out, pulling the plug on Afghanistan.
But the president has said this is a war of necessity
-- necessity. And he said during the campaign we had
to win it. For him to pull the plug at this stage,
just as Michael says, we are moving -- we are already
starting to change strategy under General Petraeus
and General McChrystal. We are moving toward a
counterinsurgency strategy.
It's -- we knew we were going to get a lot more
casualties at about this time. It was all intentional
to try to soften up the Taliban. To pull the plug
now, I think, would bring -- I think the president
would get clobbered from a lot of people to his
right. And the U.S. military would be really, really
angry at him if he pulled the plug at this point.
COOPER: Michael, are we seeing an uptick in the
casualties because the U.S. is on the offensive
against the Taliban, and there's more engagements, or
is it also -- or is it and, as well, because the
Taliban tactics are evolving, they're becoming more
efficient, more deadly, using IEDs, using suicide
attacks?
WARE: Well, unfortunately, it's both, Anderson.
I mean, you have seen the Taliban here. It is an
evolving enemy. It is a constantly changing
insurgency in tactics, in style, in number. I mean,
that's classic guerrilla warfare. As the conventional
forces, like the U.S. or the British troops do
something, the Taliban sits back, watches, and then
formulates its response.
We saw that happen with this massive offensive that's
become President Obama's war in Helmand Province here
in Southern Afghanistan. There, we're seeing a great
focus of American troops, more soldiers dying than we
have seen before, a lot of that happening there,
focusing on one small area of a very big picture.
So, it's a matter of both things, unfortunately, an
evolving enemy and more engagement from American
troops...
COOPER: And, David...
WARE: ... in President Obama's war -- Anderson.
COOPER: And, David, these stories now of widespread
vote-rigging in favor of President Karzai in the
recent election, that certainly does not help
President Obama in terms of trying to sell this as a
war of necessity.
GERGEN: That's absolutely right, Anderson.
And it's really added to the burden of the U.S.
military, because basic to the strategy of
counterinsurgency that General Petraeus has brought
to this, just as he brought to Iraq, was that you
need to get more security for the people of the
country and have a central government that is
trusted.
These fraudulent -- the amount of fraud in these
elections could easily delegitimize the Karzai
government -- and Michael knows this better than I do
-- in the eyes of millions of the Afghani people. And
that makes it much more complicated for the U.S.
Anderson, I might add, in terms of what the president
may decide to do, there is a good deal of speculation
right now fueled by a report in "The Los Angeles
Times" that what is being considered is the idea of
increasing the number of combat troops, U.S. combat
troops, by 14,000 or 15,000, but then to reduce the
number of American supply troops, the non-combat
troops, and to replace them with private contractors.
We already have more contractors there than we have
soldiers. That would be a major shift in the way we
do things.
COOPER: Already, as you said, more contractors
serving there than in any previous war in U.S.
history.
We have got to leave it there.
David Gergen, thanks.
Michael Ware, stay safe. We will see you next
week.