Reply to Andy McCarthy

By Max Boot "McChrystal’s strategy is the only way to achieve this goal, as the past eight years should have proven. During those years, we did not pursue a counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan. We focused on killing bad guys—something that McCarthy presumably approves of. The result has been that the Taliban are seizing control of large parts of eastern and southern Afghanistan. What experience teaches—most recently the experience of Iraq—is that only by placing troops among the population can we prevent safe havens for terrorists from emerging."