While ordering Byron’s book, I remebered to get Alexander Burnes’ Travels to Bokhara which Amazon, nor Abebooks stocks – it’s available online though.

So much for Chatwin-like namedropping …

He is talking about alternatives to the current war that were never considered, a Bonn agreement that was leading into the wrong direction looking for the wrong approach to a solution, and why the West needs to rethink its idea of “security” and how to keep it.

Personally his comment on the last point – that the problem the West has with the Muslim world is a “breach of trust” and thus a solution with arms is in no way leading to a solution, just leading to more distrust – is the most valuable. That “trust” is a vital component if you want to e.g. make business with a carpet dealer in Pakistan, if you want to travel from Urumqi to Kashgar with a truck driver or if you want to build a school in Kashmir with a mistri you hardly know. That trust is different from what we understand under the same term when dealing with other people in e.g. Europe. And that difference needs to be understood and felt (unfortunately I am a poor creator with words and thus won’t attempt an explanation here, Nicolas Bouvier in his L’Usage de Monde does give some insight for all those who can’t experience it themselves), can be learnt on the small scale (carpet dealer, truck driver, mistri) and may then be applied on the large scale (international cooperation, trade, nation building).

He does endorse McChrystal’s assessment, but criticizes him for not presenting a strategy to meet the goal (“people centered approach”).

Kilcullen also has a lecture on “Small Wars”, I haven’t listened to it yet.