Small Wars Journal

This Week at War

Fri, 05/01/2009 - 4:24pm
This week's SWJ contribution to Foreign Policy - This Week at War by Robert Haddick - is now posted. Topics include - Do Pakistan's leaders lack an instinct for survival? - Will the United States ever fix its combat advisor problems?

Comments

Ken White

Thu, 05/07/2009 - 11:55am

Good question -- I think the answer is that we must cope as best we can.

I think a far better question is: Since the potential problem you mention and others even worse can be spotted years in advance if one pays even the slightest attention -- we generally do that -- why do our various Administrations and 'leaders' not use some simple common sense and adjust course so that those problems can be averted or avoided.

I'm sure the fact they are more worried about their domestic 'legacy' and the political supremacy of their Party than they are concerned with the welfare of the nation and the Constitution they've sworn to defend has no bearing on that failure...

CMSbelt (not verified)

Thu, 05/07/2009 - 5:28am

Davie Kilcullen's testimony about the problems of Pakistan's government and the question raised by Robert Haddick on whether Pakistan's leaders "lack an instinct for survival" highlight a critical conundrum for current US COIN doctrine: what to do when the host nation's government is terrible? If the key concept is to support the perceived legitimacy of the HN government, what happens when its leaders are so bad this is an impossible task?