- President Karzai: Your predecessor, General Whelan! I liked him! I'm not entirely certain he liked *me*; he didn't visit very often. Why was he dismissed? It seems- uhh, one minute he was here- uh, next minute, not here.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Ah. Well, Mr. President, I think our government simply felt it was time our effort took a new direction.
- President Karzai: And uh, what is this new direction?
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Ah! It's most important to me that we *build* Afghanistan. Together, we build Afghanistan into a free and prosperous nation, free from fear and conflict.
- President Karzai: I see.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Yeah.
- President Karzai: I see. Sounds a lot like the *old* direction.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: We hope to launch Operation Moshtarak *tonight*. I need your official consent before doing so.
- President Karzai: [surprised] Really?
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Yes, sir.
- President Karzai: Why?
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Because it's your mission.
- President Karzai: It is?
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Yes, sir!
- President Karzai: Ah. No one has ever asked me to approve a mission before.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Well that needs to change! This mission *needs* your consent. If we're to win the trust of Helmand Province, it demands that this mission be seen to be of your design. I-
- [the President sneezes loudly and one of his nose tampons fly off]
- Gen. Glen McMahon: I don't mean to be rude, Mr. President, uhm, but it is *imperative* that you begin to take a leadership role here. We cannot win this thing alone.
- [the President shakes his head adamantly, captured by Glen's pep talk]
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Without your active involvement, our presence here will never be anything more than a foreign occupation! This is *your war*.
- [the President nods]
- Gen. Glen McMahon: For your country!
- [the President nods again]
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Your people!
- [the President nods once more]
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Again, I'm sorry sir, but you need to- behave like a leader.
- President Karzai: But I am behaving like a leader! I'm unavailable. I am as unavailable to you as is your own president. Hm?
- [Glen clears his throat uncomfortably]
- President Karzai: You have my approval, General. We both know it was never really mine to give, but... I thank you for inviting me to participate in the *theater* of it all. And good luck. I wish you much success.
- [the President turns the TV back on]
- Sean Cullen: [voiceover] The thing about counterinsurgency is that it doesn't really work. We tried it in Viet Nam. That went well... The British and the French gave it a shot trying to hang on to *their* crumbling empires... It just hasn't worked. To me, it would seem kind of simple why. You can't win the trust of a country by invading it. You can't build a nation at gunpoint.
- Sean Cullen: Men are imperfect creatures. Left to their own devices all they really wanna do is play with their dicks and eat chicken.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: General.
- [shakes his hand]
- British Officer: We're all... very excited to see you here; it's an honor to meet you.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: I'm excited to be here. Ain't that right, Greg?
- Greg Pulver: Yes indeed, sir, you're very excited.
- [last lines]
- Sean Cullen: Anyway, in the absence of any real soul searching, what do we do? Well, obviously, we sack Glen and we bring in some other guy. And that other guy... was Bob.
- [Glen is briefing government officials on the mission in a conference room in Berlin, talking about counterinsurgency]
- Gen. Glen McMahon: [to an audience member with her hand up] Yes ma'am.
- German Politician: [with heavy German accent] General, the US invaded Afghanistan because of the Al-Qaeda attacks on September 11th. This is correct, yes?
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Uh, yeah.
- German Politician: You have been speaking to us now for 45 minutes.
- [Someone in the back says "Lauter bitte"]
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Oh, uh, where is the- uh... Oh thank you.
- German Politician: [takes the microphone] Thank you.
- [Says something in German to someone off screen, then turns to Glen]
- German Politician: You have been speaking to us now for 45 minutes, and yet in all of that time, you have only mentioned Al-Qaeda once.
- [Scott Cullen scoffs and takes out his pen]
- German Politician: Your own vice president has advocated a much smaller and simpler counter-terrorism approach to incapacitate what is estimated to be little more than 100 Al-Qaeda fighters that still remain in Afghanistan to refocus on what it was that started this was in the first place.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Ah!
- German Politician: [interrupting Glen] Your analysis of the insurgency there suggests to me that there is no monolithic Taliban. You are spread over the entire country. You are fighting 1,000 separate battles with locals whose principal ideological position would seem to be simply that they don't want foreign soldiers in their village, and that, General, you must know, is a war you will *never* win.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Let's say you have ten insurgents. Huh? Now, let's say you kill two of 'em. Now, how many insurgents do you have left? Hmm? Hmm? Well, you'd say eight, of course. Eight. Right? Right? Wrong! In this scenario, ten minus two equals 20. Let's say the two insurgents you just killed, uh... each had six friends or brothers or some such, who are hovering on the brink of... of joining the insurgency. They're thinking about this insurgency thing. "Looks interesting. But, you know, for one reason or other, not for me." But... So, then you go and kill their friend. Now you've just made up their minds for 'em. Those hovering friends are now full, paid-up members of the enemy. Yeah. And so, in the math of counterinsurgency, ten minus two... equals 20.
- Sean Cullen: You could argue that the main reason certain generals like war so much is, well, because only in war that they feel truly relevant. It's only in war that they feel close to the center of power. Only in war do they feel the warm glow of other people's attention.
- [first lines]
- Sean Cullen: [voiceover] Ah, America. You beacon of composure and proportionate response, you bringer of calm and goodness to the world... What do you do when the war you're fighting just can't possibly be won in any meaningful sense? Well, obviously, you sack the guy not winning it and you bring in some other guy. In 2009, that war was Afghanistan, and that other guy... was Glen.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: What do you think this dinner is for, Tom Howard.
- Tom Howard: uh General, this uh, this, this dinner is uh, to honor you sir.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: [immediately] Wrong. This dinner is for Afghanistan. We're here tonight because we're at war in Afghanistan. And you've got the goddamn gall, to kick the only Afghan in the room off my goddamn table?
- Gen. Glen McMahon: [to the group of marines] I've spent the last week or so talking to guys who I would call middle management, but you boys are at the coal face. After all the blah blah blah, *you* boys are actually where it happens. I'd go so far as to say you boys are the only thing that counts. If it doesn't happen here, it doesn't happen, end of story.
- [to Billy, who raises his hand]
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Yes son?
- Cpl. Billy Cole: If what doesn't happen, sir?
- Gen. Glen McMahon: *It*, son.
- Cpl. Billy Cole: Okay, thank you, sir.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Does anyone here know what "it" is? Anyone?
- [silence]
- Gen. Glen McMahon: *Any* one?
- [points to Ricky who's raised his hand]
- Ricky Ortega: To- uh, secure the area, sir? To protect the people from the enemy so they can go about building their lives.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Okay. O-kay. Thank you, Sarge.
- Cpl. Billy Cole: Okay, but I can't tell the difference between the people and the enemy. They all look alike to me. I'm sure they're the same people, sir.
- Sean Cullen: I used to think that men went gray because they had stressful jobs with stressful decisions to make. Now, I think it happens when men start to feel in their bones that the great moments of their lives... might not turn out to be quite as great as they'd always hoped. When the real world starts creeping in. What separates the believers like Glen from everybody else is...
- [Glen salutes]
- Sean Cullen: their ability to block this real world out. Some people call this insanity.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Let me tell you want I want you to do, Tom Howard. I want you to go sit your ass down wherever the fuck your ass was officially designated to sit, and I want you to tell Badi to bring his ass back over here!
- [slams on the table simultaneously]
- Gen. Glen McMahon: How's that sound Tom Howard?
- [pause]
- Tom Howard: [stands] I'm sorry sir.
- [glances across the table and to Jeannie McMahon]
- Tom Howard: Ma'am.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Sir, My team and I are about to embark on a tour of the country, so that we may make an assessment to precisely understand what is required of us here. It could be an honor if you would consider joining me on the tour so that our project might be a unified endeavor. A sharing of our purpose.
- President Karzai: Thank you for your invitation, General. It's very generous. But I've seen the country.
- Sean Cullen: [narrating] In the good old days, wars were fought against conventional armies from nation states. Guys in uniforms, like Nazis and stuff. When, however, you've just gone and invaded a place that you probably shouldn't have, you end up fighting against just regular people in regular-people clothes.
- Sean Cullen: These guys are what are called insurgents. Basically, they're just guys who picked up weapons 'cause... so would you, if someone invaded your country. Funnily enough, insurgencies are next to impossible to defeat. And so, if you wanna go on pretending you can win, you're really left with no option but to try to convince the country you've invaded that you're actually here to help.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: I don't think it really matters who leaked the assessment. Question is, what are we gonna do about it. I wanna do the 60 Minutes interview.
- Simon Ball: Sir, as your senior PAO, I must counsel strongly against it. It would be foolhardy. I really don't think now is the time to court media attention. At the very moment, allegations are being made that you leaked this report yourself.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: I'm choosing to embrace the leak, Simon. I don't seem to be getting any traction. Do you know what I'm saying? Traction? We got ourselves a president who appears not to be aware of the fact that the United States is at war right now and he is that war's commander-in-chief. I gotta get me some traction.
- Matt Little: You need cut through.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: Exactly! Cut through... You need to get me some goddamn cut through.
- Simon Ball: I can handle that for you, sir.
- Matt Little: Sorry, no offense, Simon; how exactly are you gonna do that?
- Simon Ball: I'll quieten this whole situation down.
- Matt Little: Again, I'm sorry, I don't start a fight here; and please forgive me for speaking for you, sir, but the general didn't hire me to make things quiet, ok? Look, you're so good at your job, but that job is basically writing press releases. Here's the thing about press releases: nobody reads them. Ok? They are boring. And they are bullshit. And everyone knows they're bullshit. Correct me if I am wrong, but you hired me to make some noise. You know, the right kind of noise - our noise.
- Sean Cullen: [narrating] Wars aren't fought by nations or by armies. Wars are fought by men.
- Sean Cullen: There are two types of general in the American military. There are those who believe they can win in the face of all evidence to the contrary. And there are those who know they can't. Unfortunately for the world, it's the believers who climb to the top of the ladder. It's guys like Glen who get given the keys to the castle.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: This is a war. But it's a war that cannot be won by the virtues of our unassailable military might and power alone. This war will be won primarily with the unassailable might and power of our ideals.
- Andy Moon: [quesitoning the general] It seems to me that we all here with our guns and shit, trying to convince these people that... deep down we're actually really nice guys. And I don't know how to do that, sir, when every second one of them or every third one of them or every tenth one of them is trying to fucking kill me, sir.'Cause I'm a marine.'Cause we're marines. And it seem like now they handing out medals for heroically not being a marine, sir.
- Gen. Glen McMahon: You gotta understand, what we're trying to do here is like raising a child. And a child needs two parents. Two parents who love it, and each other very much.
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