Chris Coyne
The entourage entered the bazaar. The Afghans sensed that an important American had arrived, and they began to gather in groups inside the stalls. Then the general stopped and turned.
“What do you need here?” McChrystal asked.
A translator turned the general’s words into Pashto.
“We need schools!” one Afghan called back. “Schools!”
“We’re working on that,” McChrystal said. “Those things take time.”
McChrystal walked some more, engaging another group of Afghans. He posed the same question.
“Security,” a man said. “We need security. Security first, then the other things will be possible.”
“That is what we are trying to do,” McChrystal said. “But it’s going to take time. Success takes time.”
The questions kept coming, and the answer was the same. After a couple of hours, McChrystal put on his helmet and flak jacket, boarded the Black Hawk and flew to another town.
The full article can be found here. Thanks to Adam Pellilo for the pointer.
Nice Teddy Roosevelt allusion, for what it's worth.
Posted by: Danny Shahar | October 25, 2009 at 11:31 PM
This is more or less how the government solves all of its "knowledge problems." Think of the Congressman going home to listen to his constituents.
Posted by: Mario Rizzo | October 26, 2009 at 09:36 AM
McChrystal has numerous sources of info. One of the most important is that his troops follow rules; as partly articulated in his 'directives' (note they are not called 'commands' or 'goals' or 'objectives'). Hayek shows us the importance of this rule following behaviour. As he wrote in The Sensory Order: ‘[T]he captain of a battleship may sometimes recognize the nature of an observed object less from his direct perception of it than from the response of his ship…’ (Hayek, 1952, 91)
Posted by: Aidan Walsh | October 29, 2009 at 11:59 AM