doctordog
06-22-2010, 09:30 PM
Analysis: Gen.'s remarks echo troubled Afghan war
WASHINGTON (AP) - The war in Afghanistan appears in disarray.
The commanding general's disrespectful remarks about President Barack Obama and his team are the latest setback for a nine-year war rocked by rising casualties, declining public support, growing doubts among allies and feuding between Washington and Kabul.
Whether he fires Gen. Stanley McChrystal or lets him survive with a harsh scolding, Obama opens himself to further political attack as he struggles to keep his balance in the midst of the nation's economic woes and the environmental devastation from the Gulf oil spill.
The Republican opposition will likely seize on the McChrystal flap as evidence of Obama's weakness as commander in chief, even though the party supports the president's Afghan policy.
Liberal Democrats were already disenchanted with Obama for continuing to fight the war against daunting odds and at huge cost.
The White House would not say on Tuesday if McChrystal will be fired, but declared he had made an "enormous mistake" in the unflattering Rolling Stone magazine article and that "all options are on the table."
McChrystal's immediate boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, called the commanding general's remarks a "distraction" from the United States' "singular focus" of "fighting a war against al-Qaida and its extremist allies, who directly threaten the United States, Afghanistan, and our friends and allies around the world."
McChrystal's troubles with Obama are not new and began shortly after he was named commander in May 2009. The general sent Gates a report that concluded the Afghan mission required 40,000 more troops or the United States faced mission failure.
The assessment was leaked and deeply angered the White House that was in the midst of a protracted study of how to prosecute the war. Some said McChrystal was bullying the administration. In the end, Obama agreed to send 30,000 additional troops, giving McChrystal nearly all the resources he wanted.
McChrystal had already been called to account once by Obama after the commander publicly derided Vice President Joe Biden's position that called for a small troop increase with a heavy emphasis on counterinsurgency efforts to win over the Afghan people.
Since then U.S. troop deaths in the war crossed the 1,000 mark late last month. A mission to take control of the city of Marja in the south has not been the clear success promised by the military. Rolling Stone said McChrystal calls it a "bleeding ulcer."
And McChrystal seems to have sided with Afghan President Hamid Karzai—who's clearly on the outs with the administration—on how to conduct a long-promised offensive on Kandahar, the biggest city in the south and a Taliban stronghold. The Kandahar operation is considered crucial to the U.S. strategy to turn back the Taliban.
A statement from Karzai's office on Tuesday defended McChrystal.
"The president believes that Gen. McChrystal is the best commander that NATO and coalition forces have had in Afghanistan over the past nine years," the statement said.
But that's likely to do McChrystal more harm than good given the Karzai's falling stock at the White House.
Obama's troubles in Afghanistan, as bad as McChrystal public complaints have now made them, do not stop with internal U.S. disputes.
The U.S. war effort, which has always been tinged with the bad odor of America's defeat in Vietnam, also has caused troubles for Washington's allies in the fight.
On Monday, Britain marked the 300th death among its Afghan forces, and new Prime Minister David Cameron called that "desperately bad news."
The same day, Britain's Foreign Office confirmed that its outspoken special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan had taken an extended leave of absence after reports of rifts with his U.S. colleagues in the region.
Sherard Cowper-Coles has long had a reputation for frank talk and was once quoted as saying the war in Afghanistan was doomed to fail.
Canada, another key ally in the conflict, removed its top military commander in Afghanistan for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with a female subordinate. Canada is withdrawing all its forces next year.
Poland's interim president said Tuesday he will end his country's military mission in Afghanistan in 2012, if he wins next month's runoff election.
Bronislaw Komorowski said he would start scaling back Poland's force of some 2,600 troops in 2011, and end the mission the following year. That, he said, only echoes Obama's promise to start bringing U.S. troops home in July 2011.
The Netherlands will withdraw all its forces on Aug. 1.
McChrystal took command in Afghanistan after Obama fired Gen. David McKiernan 13 months ago. That was the first presidential dismissal of a wartime general since President Harry Truman ousted Gen. Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War.
History may be repeating itself more quickly this time.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9GGH9H00&show_article=1
WASHINGTON (AP) - The war in Afghanistan appears in disarray.
The commanding general's disrespectful remarks about President Barack Obama and his team are the latest setback for a nine-year war rocked by rising casualties, declining public support, growing doubts among allies and feuding between Washington and Kabul.
Whether he fires Gen. Stanley McChrystal or lets him survive with a harsh scolding, Obama opens himself to further political attack as he struggles to keep his balance in the midst of the nation's economic woes and the environmental devastation from the Gulf oil spill.
The Republican opposition will likely seize on the McChrystal flap as evidence of Obama's weakness as commander in chief, even though the party supports the president's Afghan policy.
Liberal Democrats were already disenchanted with Obama for continuing to fight the war against daunting odds and at huge cost.
The White House would not say on Tuesday if McChrystal will be fired, but declared he had made an "enormous mistake" in the unflattering Rolling Stone magazine article and that "all options are on the table."
McChrystal's immediate boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, called the commanding general's remarks a "distraction" from the United States' "singular focus" of "fighting a war against al-Qaida and its extremist allies, who directly threaten the United States, Afghanistan, and our friends and allies around the world."
McChrystal's troubles with Obama are not new and began shortly after he was named commander in May 2009. The general sent Gates a report that concluded the Afghan mission required 40,000 more troops or the United States faced mission failure.
The assessment was leaked and deeply angered the White House that was in the midst of a protracted study of how to prosecute the war. Some said McChrystal was bullying the administration. In the end, Obama agreed to send 30,000 additional troops, giving McChrystal nearly all the resources he wanted.
McChrystal had already been called to account once by Obama after the commander publicly derided Vice President Joe Biden's position that called for a small troop increase with a heavy emphasis on counterinsurgency efforts to win over the Afghan people.
Since then U.S. troop deaths in the war crossed the 1,000 mark late last month. A mission to take control of the city of Marja in the south has not been the clear success promised by the military. Rolling Stone said McChrystal calls it a "bleeding ulcer."
And McChrystal seems to have sided with Afghan President Hamid Karzai—who's clearly on the outs with the administration—on how to conduct a long-promised offensive on Kandahar, the biggest city in the south and a Taliban stronghold. The Kandahar operation is considered crucial to the U.S. strategy to turn back the Taliban.
A statement from Karzai's office on Tuesday defended McChrystal.
"The president believes that Gen. McChrystal is the best commander that NATO and coalition forces have had in Afghanistan over the past nine years," the statement said.
But that's likely to do McChrystal more harm than good given the Karzai's falling stock at the White House.
Obama's troubles in Afghanistan, as bad as McChrystal public complaints have now made them, do not stop with internal U.S. disputes.
The U.S. war effort, which has always been tinged with the bad odor of America's defeat in Vietnam, also has caused troubles for Washington's allies in the fight.
On Monday, Britain marked the 300th death among its Afghan forces, and new Prime Minister David Cameron called that "desperately bad news."
The same day, Britain's Foreign Office confirmed that its outspoken special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan had taken an extended leave of absence after reports of rifts with his U.S. colleagues in the region.
Sherard Cowper-Coles has long had a reputation for frank talk and was once quoted as saying the war in Afghanistan was doomed to fail.
Canada, another key ally in the conflict, removed its top military commander in Afghanistan for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with a female subordinate. Canada is withdrawing all its forces next year.
Poland's interim president said Tuesday he will end his country's military mission in Afghanistan in 2012, if he wins next month's runoff election.
Bronislaw Komorowski said he would start scaling back Poland's force of some 2,600 troops in 2011, and end the mission the following year. That, he said, only echoes Obama's promise to start bringing U.S. troops home in July 2011.
The Netherlands will withdraw all its forces on Aug. 1.
McChrystal took command in Afghanistan after Obama fired Gen. David McKiernan 13 months ago. That was the first presidential dismissal of a wartime general since President Harry Truman ousted Gen. Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War.
History may be repeating itself more quickly this time.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9GGH9H00&show_article=1