Petraeus Recommends Newsweek to Senate Committee

While testifying on Capitol Hill yesterday, former Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus, who now heads U.S. Central Command, had some stern advice for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Since the Taliban has been disrupted in 2001, many of its members have dispersed over new areas in Afghanistan and in Pakistan. But between the two, it's reasonable that the U.S. focus more effort in Afghanistan, primarily because “we can go in those areas,” he told them. Petraeus then pointed toward some required reading on the topic that surprised us pleasantly: the pages of NEWSWEEK. Here’s the exchange with Delaware Sen. Ted Kaufman:

KAUFMAN: General Petraeus, just help me through this. We've talked in the past—and Secretary Gates, when he was here—talk about how the Taliban reconstituted themselves in ungoverned areas. In the strategy we're talking about, we're going to be mainly in the populace areas, leaving large swaths of Afghanistan without any real involvement.

PETRAEUS: But—but the difference is that in—of course, in Afghanistan, we can go into those areas. We

KAUFMAN: No, I understand. So is the—

PETRAEUS: —we can keep them disrupted. And, in fact, the Taliban really reconstituted as much in remote areas of Pakistan as they did actually in Afghanistan. There's a great article, by the way, in Newsweek, I think about a month ago, cover story, talked about how the Taliban came back. And I commend that to you, if your folks haven't shown it to you.

The story the general referenced is here, an original oral history of the Taliban reported by Middle East correspondents Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau that ran as our cover in early October. The story was accompanied online by this gallery of Taliban photos.