British MP Rory Stewart TED Talk
He believes that the government isn't being truthful with the general public because they need the money from people who are worried about things like the Taliban and issues that aren't as big as made out to be.
Original TED Talk
Important quotes from his talk--
“The story that we're told is that there was a 'light footprint' initially -- in other words, that we ended up in a situation where we didn't have enough troops, we didn't have enough resources, that Afghans were frustrated -- they felt there wasn't enough progress and economic development and security, and therefore the Taliban came back -- that we responded in 2005 and 2006 with troop deployments, but we still didn't put enough troops on the ground. And that it wasn't until 2009, when President Obama signed off on a surge, that we finally had, in the words of Secretary Clinton, 'the strategy, the leadership and the resources.' So, as the president now reassures us, we are on track to achieve our goals."
“All of this is wrong. Every one of those statements is wrong. Afghanistan does not pose an existential threat to global security. It is extremely unlikely the Taliban would ever be able to take over the country --extremely unlikely they'd be able to seize Kabul. They simply don't have a conventional military option.And even if they were able to do so, even if I'm wrong, it's extremely unlikely the Taliban would invite back Al-Qaeda. From the Taliban's point of view, that was their number one mistake last time. If they hadn't invited back Al-Qaeda, they would still be in power today.”
He believes that the government isn't being truthful with the general public because they need the money from people who are worried about things like the Taliban and issues that aren't as big as made out to be.
Original TED Talk
Important quotes from his talk--
“The story that we're told is that there was a 'light footprint' initially -- in other words, that we ended up in a situation where we didn't have enough troops, we didn't have enough resources, that Afghans were frustrated -- they felt there wasn't enough progress and economic development and security, and therefore the Taliban came back -- that we responded in 2005 and 2006 with troop deployments, but we still didn't put enough troops on the ground. And that it wasn't until 2009, when President Obama signed off on a surge, that we finally had, in the words of Secretary Clinton, 'the strategy, the leadership and the resources.' So, as the president now reassures us, we are on track to achieve our goals."
“All of this is wrong. Every one of those statements is wrong. Afghanistan does not pose an existential threat to global security. It is extremely unlikely the Taliban would ever be able to take over the country --extremely unlikely they'd be able to seize Kabul. They simply don't have a conventional military option.And even if they were able to do so, even if I'm wrong, it's extremely unlikely the Taliban would invite back Al-Qaeda. From the Taliban's point of view, that was their number one mistake last time. If they hadn't invited back Al-Qaeda, they would still be in power today.”