Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
Though in the future, post a link as you did and then you don't need to paste the entire article, just a short excerpt will do -- that way the Blog avoids copyright problems...

This:has to be one of the less intelligent comments I've read in a few days. Surely he was misquoted...
I suspect as well though that it overstates his true position by being out of context.

It touches though the balancing act in Afghanistan. Many from N. Afghanistan feel that the Coaliton is "rewarding bad behavior" by focusing development in the south. They also are very fearful of Karzai reaching out to those they worked to run off in the first place.

You must retain the support of the populace that is satisfied and therefore loyal, while reaching out to that segment that is not. We are not balancing well, or even at least explaining why things are done in certain ways.

The irony is though, that even though focus may by in "troubled areas", within those areas we tend to bring goodness to the secure areas such as described by Dr. Nagl. We have a generally right idea, but then becuase it is too hard to really do it right we goof it up at the last minute and end up reinforcing the wealth and power of Karzai's cronnies.

Good Governance is hard. (Glad to hear that we are getting away from "death" being a prerequisite for extreme valor though!)