Weekend Reading

I just wanted to highlight an informative article from Sunday's Washington Post. Scott Wilson, who was a reporter in Bogota for four years, argues that Colombia makes a better model for Afghanistan than Iraq, largely due to the influence of drugs funding the insurgency and lack of a strong central government.

Count Wilson squarely in the counterinsurgency camp of the COIN-CT debate. He argues that drug eradication efforts primarily hurt and anger the poor local population, and instead a long-term effort should be spent on building up the army. Additionally he stresses the need for a strong and trusted leader, in Colombia's case Uribe. Is Karzai that leader? I'm pretty skeptical, especially on the trusted front, since his brother has become the richest man in Afghanistan since he took office, but I don't see many viable alternatives.