How we get out of Afghanistan

Bing West has given an interview to the Small Wars Journal.  In the interview I think we have a template for backing off without giving up.  And he has a new book.

Q: What do you propose for a new strategy?

A:  Push the Afghans to fight their own war.  Stop fighting it for them.  Create the Adviser Corps we have needed for the past ten years.  Our air surveillance is so extraordinary today that we can deploy about 50 advisors per 400 man Afghan battalion and patrol rigorously without unduly risking our advisers.  We do not need 100,000 troops.  The average grunt sees a real live Taliban only a few times in a tour.  We spend as much time in shuras as on patrols.  That has not yielded return on the investment.  The Taliban needs to mass in order to threaten to retake government control in the urban areas.  Given our air they cannot mass.