jcustis:
The USMC comes out magnificently in the book. Mr. Malkasian said their efforts were something like a masterpiece of tactical application of COIN (or something like that, I just took the book back to the library). But I figure you already knew that.
A point he made that was a surprise is that sometimes anti-corruption efforts backfired, specifically regarding the police. They resulted in a very effective but hard edged commander being replaced by a series on non-entities. Omar Jan was the guy he referred to. I figure you are familiar with him. That was part of another and broader point in the book, we have to accept some rough types who will fight in order to effectively prosecute the war.
I have a question. Do you think that overall, all the spec ops things specifically the night raids were worth it? I don't. I figure the opportunity costs far outweighed the benefits in addition to all the Afghans hating them. And I don't mean just the physical opportunity costs, the men and machines, I mean the brainpower that could have been applied more effectively if it hadn't been busy with nocturnal swooping. If that course of action had not been available, possibly all those smart people would have come up with something better. But I am very interested in what a guy who was there thinks.
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