I recall a thread about the CSIS Smart Power report but could not find it. Please merge this thread if necessary. This is a speech given yesterday by Hank Crumpton.
Smart Power Speaker Series with Henry Crumpton, CSIS, January 14, 2008.
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I recall a thread about the CSIS Smart Power report but could not find it. Please merge this thread if necessary. This is a speech given yesterday by Hank Crumpton.
Smart Power Speaker Series with Henry Crumpton, CSIS, January 14, 2008.
Here is the link to the Final Smart Power Report. It is in PDF format.
http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/...owerreport.pdf
‘You Have to Rethink War’: An ex-CIA spymaster critiques America's war on Al Qaeda. By Jeffrey Bartholet, Newsweek Web Exclusive, Mar 3, 2008.
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So why do you hope now that they may be more trustworthy or—
I think it's less a question of trust and more a question of benefits. Coercive force is a variable in their thinking, but more important is positive reinforcement or positive incentives. An example is energy. The [tribes along the border] are desperate for energy. And with energy you could improve the quarries there.
What kind of energy do they need, what kind of quarries can they exploit?
They've got some wonderful stone, marble and granite …
This is in Waziristan?
Yeah, and all the way down to Baluchistan, in all the tribal areas. The way they mine it is by using explosives to blow it up. By some estimates they lose as much as 80 or 90 percent. And they pick up what's usable and truck it out. You could go in there with some big wind turbines or solar panels, you name it, and generate some energy. Then we could bring in some first-class mining equipment. Their wages and productivity [would jump] overnight, creating more jobs, more wealth. That's the way you have to wage war. You go in there and clean the enemy out of that district, then come in the next day with wind turbines and say this is what we're going to do. They want it; they own it.
Are you involved in anything particular like this?
No. I've been talking about it for years, and people say, "That's a great idea." [But nothing happens.] The reason I focus on energy is because once you have that, people can set up their satphones and have good communications to the world. Then you're talking about education, microfinance, and a connection to the global community of nations, which is the last thing Osama bin Laden wants.
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I think the reason is that if you heavily subsidize wheat and barley, people start bringing in wheat and barley from elsewhere—Pakistan, Iran—and you really undermine the local farmers.
Well, it would need to be tied to local production somehow. My point is that we don't think of conflict in those terms. Whether it's subsidies or irrigation systems … The Taliban intentionally encourages poppy production, in part because it draws the farmer away from central authority. We need to do the opposite.
What we hear is that the system in Afghanistan is thoroughly corrupt, from ministers and warlords down to police chiefs and judges. The Taliban has been able to essentially buy their way out of prison. How do you change that?
Ashraf Ghani, the former finance minister and a smart guy, estimates that for every dollar in international aid spent, about 10 cents gets to the Afghans. It goes to overhead, salaries, and some gets siphoned off. It's a stunning figure. We talk about a narco-economy and criticize the Afghans, but we're not doing too good a job ourselves, or setting a good example. We're not approaching this with the endgame in mind.
Why is that?
We have an archaic way of thinking about war.
Which is?
Which is armies fighting armies and diplomats doing diplomacy. You don't have an expeditionary foreign service or AID [Agency for International Development] department or department of transportation. Take the example of Justice. One of the best programs we have is to take U.S. attorneys and send them overseas to serve as an ambassador's legal adviser and work with local governments. We only have a handful of these fellows around. We should have a thousand. Think of how smart they [would be] if they came back from two years in Jakarta and went to Phoenix. It's a terrific education for our U.S. attorneys. That should be a robust program.
That is a fantastic piece Bourbon thanks for posting. This guy understands SBW (slapout based warfare):wry: