Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the increasingly brutal US tactics in the Kandahar offensive in Afghanistan including the razing of entire villages; how the US breaks self-imposed counterinsurgency rules when the going gets tough; the realization of mid-level officers and Petraeus himself that a tough new COIN strategy is as likely to fail as previous versions; and how the National Intelligence Estimates on Afghanistan and Pakistan reveal that US success in Afghanistan is wholly dependent on Pakistan’s rejection of the Taliban — which is exceedingly unlikely.
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