Kayani: Oh yeah, we can do COIN
Pakistani army chief Kayani insists that his outfit can do that counterinsurgency thing just fine, contrary to what many foreign observers have asserted. “Any outside advice or subjective comments towards this end are counterproductive and divisive in effect, rather than being helpful,” he remarked. In my experience, the more someone insists they can do ...
Pakistani army chief Kayani insists that his outfit can do that counterinsurgency thing just fine, contrary to what many foreign observers have asserted. “Any outside advice or subjective comments towards this end are counterproductive and divisive in effect, rather than being helpful,” he remarked.
In my experience, the more someone insists they can do counterinsurgency, the less likely that is to be the case. It kind of reminds me of what my old Washington Post colleague Anthony Shadid, a longtime vet of Iraq and the Middle East (and shot in the back once in the line of duty) said to me one day in Baghdad: “You know, the more I know about Iraq, the less I understand it.” The beginning of wisdom is a lot of humility, in COIN as in many other endeavors.
General Kayani’s mindset is not a good indicator of trends in Pakistan. The first step toward recovery is recognizing you have a problem.
JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images
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