General: “You don’t defeat an insurgency, you marginalize it."

'Marginalize' Taliban to achieve success in Afghanistan: general

TORONTO -- A Canadian general who commanded NATO's Task Force Kandahar in Afghanistan said on Monday the key to success there doesn't lie in militarily defeating the Taliban but in simply marginalizing the group.

"In a counter-insurgency there is no VE Day and there is no tickertape parade," said Brigadier-General Denis Thompson, in a meeting with the National Post editorial board. "There is none of that. It just slowly withers and dies."

"You don't defeat an insurgency," he said. "You marginalize it. You bring it to the point where it is forced to become just a political movement and then they are just the opposition."

Brig.-Gen. Thompson, who was commander of Canadian and NATO Forces throughout Kandahar Province from May, 2008, to February, 2009, insists support for the Taliban has never risen above 15% to 20% in Kandahar - the group's home province.

There are two big myths in Afghanistan, he said: that the security situation in Kandahar is in a state of crisis and that the Taliban has succeeded in establishing shadow governments over parts of the country.


http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1445294

invading culture?