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Defense One uses cookies for analytics and personalization. By continuing to use this site, you agree to our use of cookies. Read our Privacy Policy to find out more. The American government wants the Iraqis to do the fighting on the front lines. We want the Somalis and Somali surrogate forces to. So we are up to No. We want local forces and local governments to do that. And sustainability is measured in terms of the expenditure of our blood and treasure.
And that means determining how to help host-nation forces without having to put our troops on the front lines, except in extremis. But we can maintain a very considerable number of unblinking eyes around the world with Reapers [armed drones].
In any event, every unit has a drone nowadays, and they are all helpful, but the Reaper is the coin of the realm. You can never have enough of those. You are putting forward the need for a sustained effort at every level—military, political, financial—. But very sustainable. We have drawn down in Afghanistan from a hundred and fifty thousand coalition forces that I was privileged to command at the height of the war to below twelve thousand. Anybody who served in Afghanistan knows a number of Afghans who died on the battlefield, which is something like twenty-seven times the number of U.
And it should say the Afghans will fight for their country if they are confident someone has their back and will provide reinforcements of ammunition, food, medical supplies, will provide emergency medical evaluation, and, most important, will provide close air support to get them out of a tough fight. Keep in mind, again, that the Taliban could mass anywhere on what were some isolated outposts.
And I did voice concerns months ago. And I was told the operational tempo of the Afghan air force, and it was totally unsustainable. I am not sure we could have sustained the tempo at which they were flying. And they were getting shot up. There were a lot of heroic Afghan pilots and air crews. We were a really critical component of the Afghan Security Forces that just could not be replicated. And Afghanistan had so many disadvantages, no history of strong central government.
Do you think that political or military leaders are to blame for people feeling like this had gone on too long? The Afghanistan Papers showed that there were false promises of how things were going, and claims that the training of Afghan forces was going better than it was. Was that a problem, and is it part of the issue with getting Americans to accept such a long war? Look, again, clearly there were tons of mistakes made along the way.
It was because of, first, the Bush Administration toward the end, and then the Obama Administration with the first additional tranche of troops from the policy review, and it took a good year or so to deploy those troops. You have to get the right people, the preparation of the people and the units, the right equipment, certain communications gear, blimps with optics, towers with optics.
But of course we only had the inputs right for about seven months, because Obama announced the withdrawal date to begin the redeployment of those forces during the speech in which he announced the buildup. If [the former special representative Richard] Holbrooke is trying to negotiate from a position of strength, telling the enemy you are going to start withdrawing in July of probably is not providing him that position of strength.
Obviously there are impatient leaders and rotations and all the rest of that, but this is really hard government work. Now, there were enormous accomplishments. My wife and I funded a scholarship at the American University of Afghanistan, which, by the way, was attacked by the Taliban, with dozens of people killed. So, again, they have twenty years of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, particularly in the big cities. However imperfect the Afghan government was, however corrupt, whatever shortcomings we had, they will look back on it as a golden age.
The economy in Kabul was bustling. We see them paint over the wedding-gown shops and the hair salons. They were allowed to do that, is the point. There were freedoms that will not now exist. To keep Al Qaeda from making it a sanctuary, and to gradually draw down, you had to develop security forces to whom you could transition tasks while keeping the capabilities that kept them in the fight in the tough times.
You have to hand off to something. And keep in mind that, in the early years, we were the something. In northern Iraq, I was the sheikh of the strongest tribe in Iraq as a two-star general. And, under the Geneva Conventions, I was the executive, legislative, and judicial all in one, by international law. So how do you get yourself out of that? You do what we did in Iraq. We ran an election. Or, rather, a selection or caucus in Mosul. And all of a sudden we had Iraqis to help carry the rucksack of all these responsibilities.
They were so mad at me, rather than having compassion for what happened. I lost a lot of friends. We also use it to teach them about gender bias. What was your reaction when you heard General Petraeus was being floated as a possible candidate for Secretary of State? I had a mixed reaction.
Our country could use someone like him right now. I just genuinely believe in the concept of redemption and renewal, so I was happy. When I get beyond my feelings, I had my own family and friends and so many women across America come to me and say their blood was boiling, asking me how this could happen.
This was the tipping point for me. Senator Claire McCaskill went on the record saying that this is wrong. So when I get this kind of support, I feel validated in my decision to stand up for myself. Would you want to do that for the Trump administration? I care deeply about these issues.
So if Ivanka Trump called, I think good people need to serve. I want to serve. I love my country. And you need to accept responsibility for your mistakes. But you can reclaim your own narrative. Over the weekend, he said on ABC that he learned from it. They know the caricature that was created of me by journalists who were frankly jealous of my access. And it was a very negative caricature. It comes down to implicit bias. There are so many studies that show this.
My peers are all in sensitive jobs—at the C. Part of what I want to do is to create a good old girls network. What did you think of what played out in the election and how do you think the media covered it? I was incredulous as the bias of the media in terms of the candidates. I was incredulous at the fake news. I was encouraged, though, because I saw feminist writers—male and female—calling out the bias. I feel like more and more writers are cognizant of the problems and are willing to try to challenge them.
People noted that it would then be hypocritical of him to nominate Petraeus to her former role. What did you make of that? It comes back to redemption campaign rhetoric. They all say that stuff. Obama and Clinton said that about each other. Imagine what her life has been like? I have empathy for that.
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