Victor Vescovo

There was never any strategy to either win the war, but we're not going to deploy the resources to do that.

We were not going to deploy 200,000 US troops to seal the border with Pakistan.

So you kind of have to accept reality and say,

We're not really good at nation building our counterinsurgency as a culture.

We're not ruthless enough.

How did the Romans deal with counterinsurgency?

They would eliminate a third of the population.

We're not going to do that.

But that's what it takes sometimes to win against determined adversaries in a guerrilla situation.

Yeah, I also think that hope springs eternal.

And, you know, you get deployed to Afghanistan, you want to make a difference, especially mid-level or even the brass.

And they think, no, we'll win hearts and minds.

We'll kill just enough of the most important people.

We'll just get through.

We'll do it different this time.

This time it's different.

Some of those dangerous words in the English language.

But so...

It's not pure, you know, capitalistic motivation.

I think people truly do want to succeed.