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Quote by David Petraeus

“We cleared many of their towns and cities and rural areas of al-Qaida Iraq and other insurgents.”

Quote by David Petraeus

Author

David Petraeus, born on November 7, 1952, is a former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the United States. He has extensive experience in the military and intelligence sectors, having served in the United States Army and holding significant positions in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Petraeus is known for his expertise in military strategy and intelligence analysis. more

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“Progress in Iraq has always been about teams of people and teams of teams - and ultimately about young men and women, Iraqi as well as people from the coalition.”

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“There are some ideas that will translate from Iraq to Afghanistan and there are many that will not. The first lesson of counterinsurgency, in fact, is that every situation is truly unique, has its own context, its own specific set of factors - and you have to understand that context in enormous detail to be able to craft a sound and comprehensive approach.”

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“Iraq has gone from being on the brink to being on the mend, and it clearly has some big advantages.”

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“In Afghanistan you are not rebuilding, you are building. There is very limited infrastructure and extreme terrain, with deserts in the south and mountains so high in some areas that helicopters don't even fly well at a certain altitude because the air becomes so thin. The country has a serious problem of illiteracy, especially after so many years of war and Taliban rule.”

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“Afghanistan has other enormous challenges as well, including a political system that is still very much developing, although there has been some progress in the past several years.”

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“There [in Afghanistan] is also a growing insurgency threat from al-Qaida, the Taliban and other extremist elements, some of which comes from the tribal areas of Pakistan, as well as from the Northwest Frontier province and Baluchistan.”

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“The first official statements of President Asif Ali Zardari's new government have been firm and robust. Pakistan is obviously a renewed democracy.”

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“Pakistan are very keen to carry out the operations themselves. And there's significant effort on the part of the US and other countries to provide assistance that can enable Pakistan to do just that.”

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“US forces have been increased [in Afghanistan ] from some 21,000 to about 31,000 over the past two years and a number of coalition countries have also increased their forces, there still are not sufficient troops.”

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“The question is always how you get the number of troops needed. They do not have to be coalition forces. We also have to expand the training program for the Afghan National Army and the national police, in particular. and Defense Secretary Robert Gates has already announced support for a significant increase in the Afghan army.”

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