Stanley McChrystal’s Long War

[unhappycamper]

General McChrystal meets with U.S. and Afghan commanders at Forward Operating Base Delhi in Helmand Province.


Stanley McChrystal’s Long War
By DEXTER FILKINS
Published: October 14, 2009

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal stepped off the whirring Black Hawk and headed straight into town. He had come to Garmsir, a dusty outpost along the Helmand River in southern Afghanistan, to size up the war that President Obama has asked him to save. McChrystal pulled off his flak jacket and helmet. His face, skeletal and austere, seemed a piece of the desert itself.

He was surrounded by a clutch of bodyguards, normal for a four-star general, and an array of the Marine officers charged with overseeing the town. Garmsir had been under Taliban control until May 2008, when a force of American Marines swept in and cleared it. Since then, the British, then the Americans, have been holding it and trying, ever so slowly, to build something in Garmsir — a government, an army, a police force — for the first time since the war began more than eight years ago.

~snip~

Success takes time, but how much time does Stanley McChrystal have? The war in Afghanistan is now in its ninth year. The Taliban, measured by the number of their attacks, are stronger than at any time since the Americans toppled their government at the end of 2001. American soldiers and Marines are dying at a faster rate than ever before. Polls in the United States show that opposition to the war is growing steadily.

Worse yet, for all of America’s time in Afghanistan — for all the money and all the blood — the lack of accomplishment is manifest wherever you go. In Garmsir, there is nothing remotely resembling a modern state that could take over if America and its NATO allies left. Tour the country with a general, and you will see very quickly how vast and forbidding this country is and how paltry the effort has been.

And finally, there is the government in Kabul. President Hamid Karzai, once the darling of the West, rose to the top of nationwide elections in August on what appears to be a tide of fraud. The Americans and their NATO allies are confronting the possibility that the government they are supporting, building and defending is a rotten shell.


Rest of article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/magazine/18Afghanistan-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all



unhapppycamper comment: Remember it was McChrystal who approved the Pat Tillman coverup.

[Buzz Clik]

1. I'm not sure why it's necessary to paint McChrystal as a bad guy.

Just like Obama, he inherited a bad strategy that had been in place for most of a decade, and he's been on the job for about one year. He's been given the task of "winning" this. Doesn't he deserve the opportunity to do so before we start declaring that the entire mess is his?

[unhappycamper]

2. If you read back on the Tillman fiasco, McChrystal approved the coverup.

McChrystal reminds me a bit of Westmoreland - always needs more troops. In all honesty, most generals do. Unlike McChrystal, many generals do not get caught up in duplicitous schemes to hide the truth.

[Buzz Clik]

3. Then let's keep the apples and oranges sorted.

If he's guilty of something, he should be relieved of duty. That should be our focus.

It seems to me that his record as a military leader is pretty solid, and his approach to Afghanistan is exactly what's needed.

[unhappycamper]

5. I'm not trying to be obstreperous, but what is the mission in Afghanistan?

Where is the exit strategy?

How will we know when we've 'won'?

[Buzz Clik]

6. That would be a great question for McChrystal: what are his metrics of success?

[unhappycamper]

7. Agree. I haven't seen any of that stuff in what passes for news in this country. n/t

[kstewart33]

8. Those were the questions dogging the fiasco in Iraq. Same mess? nt

[unhappycamper]

9. Pretty much. n/t

[elocs]

11. I don't think I've ever heard it simply stated what our mission in Afghanistan is.

I don't think most people know either. I believe we all deserve to know exactly what our mission is as well as the exit strategy.

[bertman]

12. In regard to unhappycamper's comment that "Unlike McChrystal, many generals do not get caught up

in duplicitous schemes to hide the truth." I think it's important to note that the ones who DO NOT get caught up in them often do not get promoted and see their careers ended by assignment to shitty desk jobs until their retirement comes around.

Also, it would be very hard to gauge how many generals DO get caught up in those schemes, since so much of this stuff is Top Secret and never sees the light of day.

If McChrystal was the one who approved the Tillman coverup this assignment must be part of his karmic debt repayment plan.

[excess_3]

4. seven more years of death...very sad..nt

[wuvuj]

10. America always STEPS IN IT?

Hubris leads to getting in over your head?

The locals are always going to understand local politics/social realities...not to mention the terrain.....better than outsiders.

The French...even with their love of French Fries...understand this...so do the Russians?