Well, it's a problem in general with the American military. If you are the biggest and the strongest military power in the world, you have this natural reluctance to learn the quirky ways of the natives in faraway lands. — Yaroslav Trofimov Copy Share Image
If you are an eighteen or nineteen-year-old with little education, as is often the case, and you're put in charge of many, many people… — Yaroslav Trofimov Copy Share Image
The American official was trying to talk about aid and development projects and finally a local tribal chief got up and said, "Even if… — Yaroslav Trofimov Copy Share Image
Even if you look at Iran, those campaigners for human rights there, they don't want to have anything to do with America, because they… — Yaroslav Trofimov Copy Share Image
But in Afghanistan, the general rule was that since you were fighting the Taliban, which was not a lawful government force, the Geneva Conventions… — Yaroslav Trofimov Copy Share Image
Now as to the behavior of the soldiers: occupations always corrupt the occupiers. — Yaroslav Trofimov Copy Share Image
I think the behavior of the troops has been a huge factor in the rise of the insurgency and in the rise of the anti-American feelings there[in Iraq]. — Yaroslav Trofimov Copy Share
In a country like Iraq with its culture of blood feuds - is that the more locals are killed, the more motivation there is for the insurgency, for the insurgents the more feelings of revenge there are, and in the end the more the operational security of the soldiers suffers, because any soldier who kills an infant today is grooming… — Yaroslav Trofimov Copy Share
In the occupation in Afghanistan, there are tragedies as well. It's not as bad as in Iraq because there are fewer American troops. But,… — Yaroslav Trofimov Copy Share Image
Because no matter how much money we spend there [in Iraq], as long as the people there see this money as... as assistance that… — Yaroslav Trofimov Copy Share Image
The other problem is that the priority of many soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan is operational security: not getting killed. Now that is a… — Yaroslav Trofimov Copy Share Image
I did some embedded stuff. And if you are embedded, the only things you see are what the soldiers see, and if the people… — Yaroslav Trofimov Copy Share Image
So our own actions sometimes have undermined our safety, in our efforts to fight terrorism. The only way this can work is if we… — Yaroslav Trofimov Copy Share Image
![“Because no matter how much money we spend there [in Iraq], as long as the people there see this money as... as assistance that is unwelcome, as long as they continue to be humiliated in their own country by us... I mean, the future looked bleak, and the future after that was in fact very bleak.” quote by Yaroslav Trofimov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/326/yaroslav-trofimov-28338_assistance_because-no-matter-how-much-money-we-spen_1119407.jpg)
