The new director of the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard University, in an article in TIME magazine, has proposed a new comprehensive strategy in Afghanistan that is mostly a reversion to the Donald Rumsfeld “Light Footprint” strategy. The main points, as summarized in my words:
- Reduced military presence with a focus on counterterrorism, not counterinsurgency.
- Rely on Special Forces and intelligence operatives, not conventional troops.
- Less aid to Afghanistan, but with “a greater focus on what we know how to do.”
- Target aid to the stable provinces rather than to those unstable ones.
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I do not approve on this strategy. I have written a criticism of the plan at the Complex Terrain Laboratory. Click to read.
