Wow. Must have been some event:
There was a moment when it seemed the swollen Washington crowd attending the annual meeting of the Center for a New American Security might get so pumped up by its own mission of salvation for the broader Middle East and Central Asia that it could take off like a rocket ship of its own self-satisfaction into the stratosphere.
Then Professor Andrew Bacevich stepped onto the dais. His shock of silver-white hair and seeming immunity to corny inside COIN (counterinsurgency) jokes weren’t the only traits distinguishing him from the rest. In nearly four hours of remarks this morning, he was the only one to question the accepted orthodoxy of “population-centric” counterinsurgency as the new reality — and only remedy — for winning the war and serving American interests in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. Everyone here at the posh Willard Hotel has seemingly genuflected to this meme as the price of admission. Bacevich not only jumped the toll, but brought the grand ballroom, at least for a few moments, crashing down to earth.
After listening to Gen. David Petraeus, Ambassador Nicholas Burns and two panels discussing the glories of the Iraq Surge and CNAS’ proposals for extending U.S. involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan — a “long term effort” that would incorporate the nearly 68,000 boots planned for Afghanistan, a civilian “surge” of diplomats, foreign service officers and aid workers and helping retool government institutions and security forces in all three countries — Bacevich asks, why?
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