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WiredANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Maryland — America’s top military officer believes there’s a cyberwar already in progress. He believes that the Defense Department’s controversial new Cyber Command should become the “engine” of our national network security — not just the builder of better Pentagon firewalls. He believes it’s time to end Afghanistan’s drug war. He believes in the battered presidency of Hamid Karzai; “there is no plan B” in Afghanistan, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen tells Danger Room. And he believes in tweeting for himself (well, with a little help from his staff).
Those are just some of the surprising answers the Mullen provided in a wide-ranging interview with Danger Room, as we flew from Morgantown, West Virginia to Washington.
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Danger Room: There’s been a lot of talk lately about Karzai and whether he’s really a reliable partner. Do we have an alternative to him if he makes good on his threat to join the Taliban, or doesn’t clamp down on the corruption in his government?
Mullen: President Karzai is the duly elected leader of Afghanistan, and we support him.
Danger Room: Well, maybe he’s not so duly elected.
Mullen:
We’ve been through the elections, he’s duly elected, he’s their president, we are very supportive of him. And at the same time, it is also clear that there are things in governance and in corruption, rule of law and security, quite frankly, that he has his ministers have to execute. We know that. We’re very supportive of that. And awfully lot of people are working very hard to try to make sure that that all heads in the right direction.Danger Room:
So what’s plan B if he’s plan A?Mullen:
The plan is to work with president Karzai. There is no plan B.Danger Room: You’ve talked a lot about the need to minimize civilian casualties in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. But those casualties are on the rise in Afghanistan. And, if the reports are to be believed, they’ve been high for a long time in Pakistan. Is this good counterinsurgency?
Mullen:
I think low civilian casualties is critical in counterinsurgency. We’ve worked it hard. There has been an uptick in Afghanistan. Some of that’s ties to an increased level of operations — we’ve got thousands of more troops there. But it’s an area we continue to focus on and that we have to get right. We cannot win this war if we keep killing Afghan civilians.more:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/04/top-officer-fears-cyberwar-hearts-karzai-tweets-with-help/