Government in a Box

Yes, that's what McChrystal said we're bringing to Marja.

This time, in Marja, the largest Taliban stronghold, American and Afghan time commanders say they will do something they have never done before: bring in an Afghan government and police force behind them. American and British troops will stay on to support them. “We’ve got a government in a box, ready to roll in,” said Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American commander here.

  NYT

We don't even pretend any more. What's the point, I guess. Everybody knows we aren't really trying to spread "democracy". Why not be honest about it? Maybe that's what Obama meant by the most transparent government yet.

To realize their goals, the Americans and their allies want to capture the area with a minimum amount of violence. American commanders say the attack on Marja is intended to be nothing like the similar size assault on the city of Falluja, Iraq, in November 2004. In that case, Falluja, under the control of hundreds of insurgents, was largely destroyed. The Americans killed plenty of guerrillas, but they did not make any friends.

“We don’t want Falluja,” General McChrystal said in an interview this week. “Falluja is not the model.”

You could have fooled me. They started off with the same tactic: announcing to the civilians they should flee, because the Marines are on the way. I'm keeping track to see how close the end result is to Falluja. And I haven't forgotten that indeed almost exactly two years ago, they were proclaiming they had indeed created a model city out of Falluja.

The Americans are hoping, too, that the largely Afghan composition of the invading force — about 60 percent of the total — will give Mr. Karzai’s government sufficient cover if anything goes wrong.

Or the Americans someone else to blame it on.

And let's not forget, we brought the entire country Mr. Karzai.

[...] and the government of Mr. Karzai has only a few serious worldwide rivals in corruption and graft.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.