Petraeus may soon find Afghanistan is no Iraq By Dianna Cahn and Drew Brown
Stars and Stripes
Published: June 25, 2010
MARJAH, Afghanistan — Three years ago, Gen. David Petraeus took command over what looked like a hopeless war effort in Iraq and is now widely credited with turning it around.
By tapping Petraeus, who authored the operative manual on the hearts-and-minds counterinsurgency (COIN) approach, President Barack Obama hopes America’s leading general can work the same magic in Afghanistan.
But it could prove much harder this time.
The two wars do have parallels: In Afghanistan, as in Iraq, the insurgents are deeply embedded in the local population. Security forces are largely untrained and undisciplined. Economic development is sputtering while effective government, hobbled by corruption and frequent assassinations of local leaders, has yet to take hold in much of the country. The population has little confidence that U.S. and other international forces will stick around, let alone win.
Meanwhile, on the home front, polls indicate that Americans are as skeptical about the prospects for success in Afghanistan as they were at a similar lowpoint in Iraq when Petraeus took over. More than half of Americans believe that the war in Afghanistan is no longer worth fighting.
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