Professional Writing: A Collection of Stories from Military Journals

Afghanistan doesn't matter. Afghanistan's just a worthless piece of dirt. Al Qaeda matters. To a lesser degree, the hardline elements within the Taliban matter. Pakistan matters, although there is nothing we can do to arrest its self-wrought decay. But our grand ambition to build an ideal Afghanistan dilutes our efforts to strike our mortal enemies, mires our forces in a vain mission civilatrice, and leaves our troops hostage to the whims of venomous regimes.

More than seven years after the control of Afghanistan was wrested from the Taliban, victory remains elusive. The Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and a host of other unsavory characters have been driven underground, successful elections have been held - an achievement likely to be repeated soon - and a nominally functional Afghan government exists. Tactically, insurgents pose little threat to International Security Assistance Force, coalition forces, or other Afghan National Army. The Afghan infrastructure and economy have made dramatic progress after nearly three decades of constant war.

The 2006 Israel-Lebanon war generated the first large-scale and system¬ic references to a heretofore mostly ignored law of war concept, the doctrine of proportionality. Occasional references to proportionality are found in accounts of the Iraq War and in histories or scholarly works of the last century. In general, prior to Israel's 2006 campaign the proportionali¬ty doctrine received little scholarly interest and even less attention among the governing classes and international media.1 In all likelihood, critics of American action in Iraq or Afghanistan would have more thoroughly...

Recent announcements from the White House by President Obama's administration spoke of a "civilian surge" that would deploy hundreds of U.S. officials to Afghanistan, in addition to sending thousands more U.S. troops there as well. This is an auspicious opportunity for the U.S. Army to apply both the knowledge and experience learned from Iraq at the local Afghan community level.1 As in Iraq, the new civilian teams will focus on establish¬ing security for the local populace and developing local governance and economic growth.