How You Know Fontaine and Nagl Influenced the White House
If you saw me on al-Jazeera fifteen minutes ago making this point, sorry for repeating myself. But if not: Robert Gibbs said in his White House press conference
Jul 31, 202074.2K Shares2.7M Views
If you saw me on al-Jazeera fifteen minutes ago making this point, sorry for repeating myself. But if not: Robert Gibbs said in his White House press conference today that the Obama strategy review for Afghanistan will go on— a troop decision is apparently still weeks away — and will continue to look at Afghan governance at the sub-national level when evaluating Afghan governing capacity. Now, one answer here is that this is a lights-out situation. Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s strategy review from the summer said there is “a crisis of confidence among Afghans — in both their government and in the international community — that undermines our credibility and emboldens the insurgents” and accordingly, his strategy recommended the need to “prioritize responsive and accountable governance — that the Afghan people find acceptable — to be on par with, and integral to, delivering security.”
Now, it’s not necessarilytrue that the outcome in the Afghan elections represents, by McChrystal’s approach, that the end is nigh. But it’s a big, big problem.
Into that breach came two Center for a New American Security analysts, Richard Fontaine and counterinsurgency-heavyweight John Nagl. They urged Obama to operationalize McChrystal’s assessment — shared by many in the administration — by ignoring Kabul and focusing governance and development efforts at the provincial and local level. And let’s be real: if you’re not going to pull out, that’s pretty much the only choice you have, short of giving Karzai a blank check again. Gibbs’ statement indicates that Fontaine and Nagl pretty much won.
Dexter Cooke
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Dexter Cooke is an economist, marketing strategist, and orthopedic surgeon with over 20 years of experience crafting compelling narratives that resonate worldwide.
He holds a Journalism degree from Columbia University, an Economics background from Yale University, and a medical degree with a postdoctoral fellowship in orthopedic medicine from the Medical University of South Carolina.
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As an orthopedic surgeon specializing in minimally invasive knee replacement surgery and laparoscopic procedures, Dexter prioritizes patient care above all.
Outside his professional pursuits, Dexter enjoys collecting vintage watches, studying ancient civilizations, learning about astronomy, and participating in charity runs.
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