Intelligence shift shows change in Afghan war aims

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MILITARY_INTELLIGENCE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-06-26-05-24-16

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Military intelligence officers were scrambling a year ago to collect and analyze the social, economic and tribal ins and outs of each valley and hamlet in Afghanistan.

This information wasn't the kind of secret or covert material many military intelligence specialists were used to. But it was seen as crucial to helping commanders tell the good guys from the bad, learn what Afghans really needed from their government and undermine the Taliban-led insurgency by winning hearts and minds.

President Barack Obama's announcement Wednesday that the United States will start bringing home U.S. troops next month is part of a gradual scaling back of American operations and ambitions in Afghanistan that is driving a shift away from that labor-intensive attention to local detail.

The old model of military intelligence is back and hunting the Taliban and al-Qaida is the No. 1 priority, officials said.

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1. This is all so Vietnam.

I guess sometimes people just don't want to have their hearts and minds won.

The wholesale drinking of KoolAid that goes on in military policy circles is depressing to behold.

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2. it just gets worse year in & year out.

& contractors have way too much influence -- the military can't stand the idea that there is some new hi-tech device out there that they couldn't buy -- and the contractors to sell to other countries.