War Machine Page #8

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Boss and Mrs. Boss, down there.

- You, drink!

- No, no.

- You, drink!

- Down the hatch.

Sir, I just want to say again

what a privilege this is.

- You must be really proud.

- Hmm?

- You must be really proud of him.

- Oh, yes, I am.

Ow!

- Ah, here we go! Here we go!

- Oh, yeah!

Go, Pete!

Come on!

I got your name all over this.

I always loved this a**hole!

- We're not flying to Berlin tomorrow.

- What?

- Not flying to Berlin tomorrow.

- What?

They won't give us clearance

to fly to Berlin tomorrow.

USA! Everybody now!

USA! USA!

This is bullshit.

It's, like, one phone call.

"Hello, they won't let us take off.

Can you fix it?"

"Oh, no, monsieur.

Big volcano. No take off. "

"Well, this is General Glen McMahon

we're talking about here. "

"Oh, General Glen McMahon.

Oh, I did not know.

Why didn't you say that?

Pardon, monsieur,

of course you may take off. "

- Done! How hard is that?

- I've made the calls. Believe me.

Listen,

we are the f***ing US military.

We practically invented everything!

And now we have

some chinless f*** in Brussels

who's telling us

we can't fly our own plane

because of a volcano in Greenland.

What are we supposed to do?

Sit around here in Paris

and wait for it to "stop erupting"?

I don't know, Greg. This isn't exactly

a situation that I've been in before.

Okay, bear with me on this one.

I think I might have

just solved our problem.

I really can't tell you why

these guys got so loose in front of me.

Or why Glen let them get so loose.

I can only put it down to hubris.

These guys thought they were

the most important guys in the world...

with the most important jobs in the world.

Maybe they assumed I thought

they were as amazing as they did.

What are you writing?

Hmm?

What are you writing?

You're always writing. I don't like it.

Maybe they thought

they could do whatever they wanted.

I'm a writer.

I write.

I better like what it is you're writing.

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.

Uh, yes, ma'am?

General, the US invaded Afghanistan

because of the al-Qaeda attacks

on September 11th.

- This is correct, yes?

- Yeah.

You have been speaking to us now

for 45 minutes-

Oh, uh, where's the, uh... Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

You have been

speaking to us now for 45 minutes,

and yet in all of that time you have

only mentioned al-Qaeda once.

Your own vice president has advocated

a much smaller

and simpler counterterrorism 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 war in the first place.

- Ah.

- Your analysis of the insurgency there

suggests to me

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.

Ah.

Uh...

with all due respect, ma'am. Uh...

I must beg to differ.

I firmly believe,

having traveled to all corners

of the country,

having spoken with many people

from many walks of life...

that what these people want is the very

same thing that you and I want.

Hmm?

Freedom, security, stability, jobs.

Progress is being made. Real Progress.

But challenges do remain.

Yes,

I understand all of that, General.

And... and, please,

let me say quite sincerely

that I do not question

the goodness of your intent.

I have been listening to you

here this morning, and, uh...

I believe you are a good man.

I do.

What I question is...

your belief in your power

to deliver these things that you describe.

I question your belief in the power

of your ideals.

Ah, well...

I think

what I am trying to say,

and I apologize, General,

if this is sounding impolite,

but I question your sense of self.

No, no, no, that's all... all right.

I, uh, appreciate your, uh, commentary.

I do. Um...

But I have a job to do.

Yes, I understand.

And I also have a job to do.

And I am trying to do mine.

As an elected representative

of the people of Germany,

it is my job to ensure

that the personal ambitions

of those who serve those people

are kept in check.

You have devoted your entire life,

General, to the fighting of war.

And this situation

in Afghanistan, for you,

it is the culmination

of all your years of training,

all your years of ambition.

- This is the great moment of your life.

- Well...

It's understandable to me

that you should have, therefore,

a fetish for completion

to make your moment glorious.

It is my job, however,

to ensure that your personal ambitions

are not entirely delusional

and do not carry with them

an unacceptable cost for everybody else.

- Honey, you okay?

- I'm fine.

Please don't shut down.

It's our last day together.

Be here with me.

One second. Thank you.

So, just got an email from Gates.

Good news and bad news.

Spoke with the German defense minister...

We're getting our troops.

Turns out that crazy b*tch...

lady back there

was just some sad, lonely voice

in the wilderness.

Bad news is,

they won't let their guys leave the base.

Whatever that means.

But, hey, they're ponying up.

So I guess job here is done.

Boss?

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...

their ability to block

this real world out.

Some people call this insanity.

Welcome to Operation Moshtarak.

We're taking the Helmand province,

gentlemen, once and for all.

Moshtarak will be the largest operation

yet to be conducted since this war began.

So, needless to say,

it is an important one.

This whole province has been

a thorn in our ass since day one.

So this here will be a definitive test

in our resolve.

And that starts right here in Marjah.

If we infill teams here and here tonight,

we can set up our blocking positions,

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