The obsession with the idea of an Afghan surge just doesn’t make sense to me. Why are we focusing on the major urban areas in Afghanistan, when 3/4 of the population lives in rural areas? Safe haven myths aside, wouldn’t an ‘urban’-centric COIN policy leave basically the vast majority of Aghanistan as a possible ‘safe haven’ for al-Qaeda and their allies? Copying-and-pasting the strategies we used in Iraq in 2006-2008, while having made some success in bettering the security situation, will not work for one simple reason.
Iraq is not Afghanistan. Stop fighting the last war, and fight this one!
