Afghanistan: Stiffening Our Allies to Win the War

Listen up, all you sceptics about our strategy in Afghanistan. We've got a secret to win this war:

Viagra.

You heard right --- the gift that keeps on giving is going to ensure the locals flock to our side to whip the Taliban. Joby Warrick, in the middle of an extended I-heart-the-US-military series for The Washington Post, explains:



The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.

Four blue pills. Viagra.

"Take one of these. You'll love it," the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam.

The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes -- followed by a request for more pills.

Warrick, in serious journalist mode, is careful to seriously intone that these "tactics and operations...are largely classified". But he can seriously assure us that "this is how some crucial battles in Afghanistan are fought and won".

So if you're lying awake at night, not because of your own Viagra-related concerns but because you might think that we're on the verge of a pretty nasty confrontation in Afghanistan in 2009, don't wonder why journalists have come this far from talk of reconstruction through schools, community organisations, electricity, and roads.

Just keep the faith in the little blue pills:

After a long conversation through an interpreter, the retired operator began to probe for ways to win the man's loyalty. A discussion of the man's family and many wives provided inspiration. Once it was established that the man was in good health, the pills were offered and accepted.

Four days later, when the Americans returned, the gift had worked its magic, the operative recalled.

"He came up to us beaming," the official said. "He said, 'You are a great man.' "

"And after that we could do whatever we wanted in his area."

Iraq Non-Surprise of the Day (2): Deconstruction

In the category of If You Don't Build It, The Insurgency Will Come, from The New York Times:

An unpublished 513-page federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country, and then molded into a $100 billion failure by bureaucratic turf wars, spiraling violence and ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society and infrastructure.

The report's conclusion is a bit of a downer:

The hard figures on basic services and industrial production compiled for the report reveal that for all the money spent and promises made, the rebuilding effort never did much more than restore what was destroyed during the invasion and the convulsive looting that followed.

It could have been worse, however. The authors might have noted that this failure was a major cause of the immediate breakdown of "Mission Accomplished" into a war by local groups against the US-led "coalition". And, since the report is still private as it is passed amongst "technical reviewers, policy experts and senior officials", it may be watered down even further to spare Bush Administration blushes.

Kudos to the Times, then, for providing a full draft version of the report.