We have all heard the news recently about the sacking of General McChrystal for insubordination. Supposedly the shakeup will not result in any policy changes and General Petraeus will be able to keep his staff from running off at the mouth around reporters.
As an exercise in futility let's take Afghanistan today and ask what would Lord Curzon do if he were to replace McChrystal instead?
How about:
- Declare that Afghanistan is occupied and under American military administration for the indefinite future.
- Dissolve the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GiRoA) including all official local authorities.
- Martial Law - Establish that the top military commander is the plenary administrator with full power to govern by decree.
- All non-Afghans in the country, military or civilian, are now under his personal command.
- Any non-Afghans not essential to the war or occupation are sent home.
- All news media and in- or out-bound communication of any kind is subject to censoring.
- Assign a fully bio-metrically encoded ID to all Afghans.
- Setup military units with Afghan soldiers under foreign officers.
- Setup civil bureaus with Afghan clerks under foreign managers.
- Assign each Afghan to be the personal responsibility of an Afghan chief, employer, guild, or other small organizational unit that has an Afghan leader. He in turn is responsible to a foreign official who may replace him at will and for no stated reason at any time.
- Seal the borders with conscripted laborers and automated weapons systems.
- Repeat as necessary in Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, Texas, Los Angeles, etc. etc. ;-)
This is proven colonial methodology: occupy, establish a hierarchy, defend it, and gradually shift emphasis from military units to civilian bureaus once order is established. It doesn't rely on 21st century military technology. But such hi-tech systems could help in establishing and maintaining order.
Or we can keep up with this Counter-insurgency non-sense. The approach above is strength through rational application of force. CoIN is about strength through weakness. And since it is failing we need a more liberal strategy: victory through defeat.
