I hope very much that the presence of a new marine contingent will assist in the pacification of the south. But as we all know, this is a guerrilla war and guerrillas generally do not choose to stand and fight and lose, as they inevitably will. They will vanish into the hillsides and attempt to wait out the United States.
This is a waiting game in many respects. Nobody expects Washington to have the stomach—much less other countries—to stay for two, three, four, five, six or more years in this kind of an effort. People are therefore waiting until the moment is more propitious for their own power.
Frankly, I don't think there's a military solution in that sense. It has to be essentially a political solution, and I think there is a contradiction somewhat between the two, frankly. Ideally, you weaken the military strength of your opponents so that they will then negotiate. I don't think they are going to negotiate. They will simply retreat and wait.
Between ISAF and the U.S. military forces, I cannot give you any in-depth assessment because I'm not deeply engaged in these details. I would have to say there has been some contradiction in American policy from very early on, and that is between State Department nation-building and aid nation-building, if you will, or institution-building. On the other hand, there are the CIA and the military that are essentially looking to find al-Qaeda and kill them, and to kill Taliban forces in the area.
There has unfortunately been a high degree of civilian deaths. Let's not call them collateral damage; they're civilian deaths. This has been a major factor in alienating the population. Even President Karzai has been very bluntly critical of Washington in saying that these civilian casualties are intolerable, yet they are essentially a part of the process, and I don't see any serious diminution of that process. But while the CIA and the military are working with warlords, supporting them and giving them money, and supporting private militias to attempt to fight the Taliban to locate al-Qaeda and other foreign elements, they are supporting the very elements within the government that are weakening the civilian nation-building side.
So there has been a contradiction between these two elements. I don't think they're totally incompatible, but I think they're weakening. Each one complicates the other's mission.