the US faced a strategic defeat before the ‘Afghan Surge’

The article I chose argued that the US faced a strategic defeat before the ‘Afghan Surge’ took place. The author believed US Generals Stanley McChrystal and David Petraeus failed to recognize the character of war and their COIN strategy was ineffective in Afghanistan. The US believed the Taliban were fighting an exhaustion strategy, when actually the Taliban waged a revolutionary war. Both US General’s did not create a counter-revolutionary strategy, resulting in a strategic defeat. Also, the governmental model sold to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA) by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was one of constitutionalism, which the rural Pashtuns rejected. To counter, the Taliban created a system of parallel hierarchies, or a “shadow government”, focused on the rural Pashtuns the centralized government in the capitol failed to recognize. The Pashtuns largely accepted the Taliban’s form of governance, thus undermining GIRoA efforts at unifying the country. Research question: What conditions caused the loss of the US war in Afghanistan before the ?Afghan Surge? took place? Hypothesis: Was the ISAF?s provision of a constitutional government model to GIRoA paired with US Generals McChrystal and Petraeus?s failure to recognize the revolutionary war carried out by the Taliban in Afghanistan prompted a strategic US defeat before the ?Afghan Surge? took place. The author focused his review of literature by calling to attention the lack of precise source documentation on modern Afghanistan studies and debunked the misguided statements of a handful of “subject matter experts” that US policymakers tend to gravitate towards for consultation. He then followed up with an analysis of the COIN strategy and how it failed in Afghanistan before being implemented. Research documentation included scholastic journal and website articles, books and documents form multiple US Government agencies. Ultimately, the author proved his argument through three points. The US Generals’ failure to see the revolutionary war the Taliban conducted. The two leaders brought a military solution to a political problem, which further alienated rural Pashtuns who were key influencers in defeating the Taliban. Based on a four-tiered system of government focused on feudalism that should have been put in place; both GIRoA and ISAF did not focus efforts on the fourth tier, the village, which was the most important of the four. GIRoA tried to sell the Pashtuns a governmental system based on an Afghan Constitution and centralized government similar to those found in the free world. Both institutions failed to utilize the powers of the manteqas, or councils, that each village upheld. This system had been in place for centuries. The Taliban realized this and utilized it through its parallel hierarchies. Pashtun favor went to the Taliban as a result. Between all of these mistakes on the part of GIRoA and ISAF, the Taliban gained the upper hand in its quest for taking back control of the country.

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