THE MODEL FOR MARJA

摘要

American military efforts in thevillage of Nawa, in Afghanistan's volatile Helmand province, are often cited by leaders as a model of what a properly resourced counterinsurgency campaign can achieve. Last July a battalion of Marines swooped in, and although the village had been solidly under Taliban control, U.S. troops transformed the place. Deployed in a one-man-to-50-villagers ratio, they took off their body armor, patrolled on foot, drank endless cups of green tea with elders, and funded small-scale reconstruction projects. By October IED attacks were down 90 percent, and Nawa had become Gen. Stanley McChrystal's "No. 1 petri dish," an aide told the press. In his recent blistering report about the failures of military intelligence in Afghanistan, Gen. Michael Flynn praised the Marines in Nawa for developing one of the only truly effective information-gathering networks in the country.