Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the importance of National Intelligence Estimates in determining US foreign policy and war-making abilities; how the Afghanistan NIE allows the military to measure their own success, leaving out a CIA assessment of the supposedly diminishing numbers of Taliban; debunking the military’s “taking the fight to the enemy” explanation for increased attacks; Gen. McChrystal’s well-reasoned “insurgent math;” and why Gen. Petraeus is more concerned with his public image than any particular military strategy, including COIN.
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