NR: "Pakistan and India
see each other as mortal enemies. And Afghanistan is
just one more field in which those two are
fighting."
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Length: 4:14
LARGE (49.5 MB)
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SMALL (5.2 MB)
Rick Sanchez talks to Michael prior to the
president's speech and asks him what we will
actually be able to achieve in Afghanistan.
RICK
SANCHEZ: All right, Michael Ware is joining us now.
Michael, thanks so much for being with us.
I'm just wondering here, as I'm looking at this
speech the president's going to give tonight, what
are we going to be able to do in three years that we
haven't been able to do in eight years?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it depends
what you do, Rick, with what you have got.
Now, the U.S. mission in Afghanistan has never had
enough forces to actually do the job. And by sending
30,000-odd extra troops or so, that will help.
SANCHEZ: What's the job? What is the job?
WARE: That's a great question. That's a great
question, Rick.
The job is not to defeat and destroy the Taliban,
because I have got to tell you, mate, you can't do
that. The Taliban are fighting on their home soil.
It's their own villages, their own valleys, the same
goat tracks they used to defeat the Soviets. So, what
we're hoping to do is actually, for once in eight
years, put the hurt on the Taliban. The Taliban war
machine is ticking over untouched -- recruiting,
supplying, deploying, attacking. We have not been
able to put a dent in that. You've got to put a dent
in that, put some military pressure on the Taliban,
where they're going to feel some pain.
SANCHEZ: To what end? Yes, to what end? Is it a win
when we're done with that?
WARE: To the end of parlaying something into a
political solution.
Rick, no matter what America wants to do, no matter
what America thinks it can do, you're not going to
get out of Afghanistan by -- and preserve American
national interests without cutting some kind of
political deal with the Afghan government, with the
Taliban, with the Pakistani government, with the
Indian government.
SANCHEZ: Is that about giving people money over there
again, like we were giving hundreds of thousands...
WARE: It's way beyond money. It's way beyond money.
Money is certainly going to be a part of it.
But you have got the Afghan government sitting there
in Kabul with its tens of thousands of troops and
police. It's got no power in the villages. So, you're
going to have to find friends, the tribal leaders,
the old warlords, to create the kinds of militias
that we saw work in Iraq because the American
soldiers, Afghan soldiers, they're not enough. Then
you've got to get India and Pakistan to back off.
SANCHEZ: I'm glad you mentioned Iraq. I trust your
sense of this as much as I trust anyone's, because I
know you have been there. You have been in the funny
costumes, hiding out amongst the people and really
getting to know how this whole thing works.
So, here is the question to you. Given what you have
learned so far about what the president will say
today, is this doable? Do you believe, given your
experience -- put on your analyst hat for me for just
a moment, not necessarily your correspondent hat --
do you see it as feasible, workable?
WARE: With a couple of miracles and a sprinkle of
luck, it's theoretically possible.
One of the key things, though, that we're going to
have to see addressed that probably won't be touched
upon this evening, although who knows, is that the
truth is, Rick, American troops are bleeding and
dying in many ways, not because of the Taliban, not
because of al Qaeda, but because of Pakistan's
rivalry with India.
Pakistan and India see each other as mortal enemies.
And Afghanistan is just one more field in which those
two are fighting.
SANCHEZ: Wow.
WARE: India long supported the rebels against the
Taliban, now supports the Afghan government. Pakistan
supports the Taliban. Well, until those two pull
their heads in, the forces that are killing Americans
on the battlefield will have the oxygen they need,
Rick.
SANCHEZ: As Yogi Berra would say, it's curiouser and
curiouser. [Actually,
that was Lewis Carroll...]
My thanks to you, Michael Ware, for telling it
straight, man. Appreciate it.