The Battle Over ‘Hearts and Minds’

The Battle Over ‘Hearts and Minds’ – Newsweek opinions. Two fathers of fallen soldiers weigh in on the war. ‘You Can’t Fight a War on the Cheap’ by David Brostrom and ‘The Military Command Is Making Bad Choices’ by John Bernard.

David Brostrom:

Wanat, and a host of similar incidents in Afghanistan, are grim reminders that you can’t fight a counterinsurgency war on the cheap. When a four-star Army general called to offer his condolences, I asked him about our strategy’s shortcomings. He conveyed that the Army was not about to “knee jerk” more troops into a place like Afghanistan and upset the “dwell time” the Army had worked hard to schedule. He said that, unfortunately, Afghanistan had become an “economy of force” with no clear “end-state.” But the goal shouldn’t be to achieve success with less. Months before Wanat, Gen. David McKiernan requested that 30,000 more troops be sent to Afghanistan. The Bush administration shunned him. It shouldn’t have – and the current administration should not second-guess Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s request for about 40,000 troops. As the president weighs his options, more soldiers and Marines die fighting without the resources and strategic vision they need.

John Bernard:

General McChrystal is too enamored with “hearts and minds”; hearts and minds is not a strategy. To be clear: I don’t say this solely because my son was killed implementing this idea. Weeks before Josh’s death, I sent a letter to the office of my congressman, Mike Michaud, outlining my worries about counterinsurgency strategy and the rules of engagement. The approach denies our men artillery and airstrikes when they need support. (For example, the day before Josh’s death, his unit was fired on from a nearby cave. But an airstrike was denied because the rules of engagement were not met; the pilot couldn’t see the enemy.) It encourages the Taliban to take up offensive positions in populated areas and attack from points off-limits to US forces.

Much more at Newsweek.