Obama's Strategy in Afghanistan
Journalist: John Roberts
Original Post: Obama's Strategy in Afghanistan
Type: Interview
December 1, 2009 — CNAS President John Nagl discusses the implementation of President Obama’s strategy in Afghanistan with John Roberts on CNN Tonight.
ROBERTS: We're now about 37 minutes away from President Obama's announcement on a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan. Joining me now are two experts on the country. John Nagl is president of the Center for a New American Security. He's also a member of the Defense Policy Board and a long time member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Matthew Hoh is a former Marine Corps captain and resigned his position with the U.S. State Department in Afghanistan in protest over how the war is being handled -- gentlemen, good to see you tonight.
John, let's start with you, if we could. The president has made the decision, 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan in the next six months. How would you best put those troops to use?
JOHN NAGL, CENTER FOR A NEW AMERICAN SECURITY: If I were General McChrystal, I would focus on the south initially. Kandahar is Afghanistan's second city. It's the home base of the Taliban. It's where the Taliban began. But currently we don't have enough troops to clear and hold it.
I would spread the rest of the troops across population centers in the south and in the east. But I'd reserve at least four or 5,000 of them to work on training the Afghan army and the Afghan police. Capable Afghan security forces are going to enable an American exit strategy from Afghanistan some time not too many years in the future. ROBERTS: Is it -- we understand from a briefing by a senior administration official there will be a brigade at least in the initial surge forces assigned to training Afghan security forces. So it sounds, John, like they might have been listening to you, there.
Now Matthew, you're opposed to a troop increase there. Also, I wanted to talk to you about this idea that General McChrystal says that if the U.S. were to draw down troops in Afghanistan, that there is a likelihood that al Qaeda would come back. The president seems to concur with that. But you disagree. Why?
MATTHEW HOH, FORMER MARINE CORPS CAPTAIN: I disagree. Al Qaeda is an organization that doesn't really exist as an organization anymore in the sense that we think of it. It's an ideological movement. It recruits individuals or small autonomous and independent cells worldwide. It exists on the Internet. It does have leadership, but the leadership is primarily figureheads now.
And so what it does is it uses the ideology driven across the Internet, and it picks up people around the world. We need to attack al Qaeda with intelligence and law enforcement focus. Army combat brigades are not going to affect al Qaeda.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
HOH: The 60,000 troops in Afghanistan are not affecting al Qaeda's operations.
ROBERTS: Do you agree with that, John?
NAGL: I don't. I think that al Qaeda does have an Internet presence, but it also still has a physical presence. It's on the ground inside Pakistan, which is the real key of the problem here. So much of what we're doing inside Afghanistan is intended to prevent Pakistan from sliding further down hill and to encourage Pakistan to continue its efforts against al Qaeda and the Taliban on its side of the border.
ROBERTS: Now Matthew, if not a troop surge, what would you do? What do you think the proper solution in Afghanistan is?
HOH: Sure. You have to -- you have to look at al Qaeda as a different problem than looking at the civil war in Afghanistan. With regards to the civil war in Afghanistan, you need a political solution, a political settlement. This war has been going on for over 30 years. You need something to bring both sides of this conflict to the table.
In 2001, we removed the party that was in power, the Taliban, and replaced them with the Northern Alliance, which roughly represent the two different sides in the civil war. We never did anything to politically settle this conflict. I think we're making a mistake by labeling what is happening in Afghanistan as insurgency and not as a civil war and that we need to drive for a political solution to end this. ROBERTS: All right, well we'll see what the president has to say tonight -- Matthew Hoh, John Nagl, good to see you tonight. Thanks so much.
CNN special coverage of President Obama's speech on Afghanistan continues in just a moment. Stay with us.
Topic(s): Regional Security Challenges, Terrorism, Irregular Warfare and Crime, Development and Diplomacy, U.S. Military Forces & Operations, U.S. National Security and Defense Policy
Project(s): Afghanistan and Pakistan
People: Dr. John A. Nagl
