Transcript
AHMED RASHID: The fact is that for about three and a half years after 9-11 the Americans had literally a few hundred troops on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. They were mostly Special Forces. They were mostly involved in tracking Al Qaeda and signaling -- and trying to get signals and intelligence from Al Qaeda. They were not much involved in -- in none of the border provinces were they involved in real hearts and minds or development apart from very small local projects. Not only that, but the Special Forces who actually won the war in 2001, which were the Special Forces who spoke Arabic and Russian and various languages in the region, were all removed and replaced by the Spanish-speaking Special Forces, who were supposed to be operating in Latin America. Now, of course, there was a complete lack of, you know, cultural information, knowledge, experience, et cetera, et cetera. So up to about the end of 2003, you had literally a few hundred troops on that border.
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