What McChrystal’s Flub Tells Us About Our Failed Strategy In Afghanistan

[Hissyspit]

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/06/22/what-mcchrystals-flub-tells-us-about-our-failed-afghanistan-strategy

Posted by maxbergmann at 12:13 pm
June 22, 2010 1 COMMENT

What McChrystal’s Flub Tells Us About Our Failed Strategy in Afghanistan

This post originally appeared on the Wonk Room.

- snip -

The significance of this food fight is not in what was said, but in what it says about where the United States is in Afghanistan. It is becoming increasingly clear that General McChrystal has failed to achieve the unrealistic expectations he set for Afghanistan. What has become apparent is that Afghanistan is not Iraq and the mythic status now given to the surge in Iraq led to a significant degree of over-confidence on the part of McChrystal and others about their ability to turn the Afghan war around after it had utterly deteriorated year after year under the neglectful watch of the Bush administration. The much balleyhooed offensive on Marja has bogged down and was not the transformative event that was anticipated. The next offensive on Kandahar has been delayed due to lack of local buy-in. As Colin Cookman and Caroline Wadhams document in a recent report, the Afghan governance situation is a total disaster. The result is a situation in which McChrystal himself admits that “nobody is winning” and in which the U.S. is pursuing a strategy that lacks clear objectives and direction.

- snip -

But McChrystal overreached and his Rolling Stone interview, where his staff makes homophobic remarks, refers to Vice President Biden as “bite me,” and attacks anyone and everyone, seems like a desperate cry for help from a frustrated and failing General. McChrystal’s comments about US Ambassador to Afghanistan, and retired General, Karl Eikenberry, are the most instructive. Eikenberry had warned in a leaked memo that he had serious concerns over the trustworthiness of the Afghan government, yet McChrystal saw the criticism as merely historical posturing, stating about Eikenberry: “here’s one that covers his flank for the history books. Now if we fail, they can say, ‘I told you so.’” This remark demonstrates that McChrystal is already fretting over how he his viewed at the end of the operation and he is no doubt worried about the blame for Afghanistan falling on his shoulders.

But in the end, this incident is much more than just about whether Stanley McChrystal still has a job. This incident tells us a lot about the current state of the Afghan operation – and the picture is not pretty. It also provides a moment that should deliver some clarity over whether the President will reaffirm that the strategy outlined last year is actually part of an exit strategy that will see our troops pulling out by July 2011 or whether this Afghan strategy – like the numerous Iraq strategies unveiled under President Bush – has simply become a strategy for endless war.

[Mimosa]

1. Great article

Afghanistan is unwinnable and maybe McChrystal and his staff were going a bit nuts over it. Subconsciously McChrystal probably wanted a way out before the official end of this horror.

[Swamp Rat]

2. k&r

[Forkboy]

4. How you been holding up down there, Swampie?

Wish I knew some constructive way to help beyond donations or words of support (sadly, my specialty is on the destructive side of things...).

[Swamp Rat]

11. Not very well

I am past sad and angry and have moved on to rage... thanks for asking, though.

[Forkboy]

14. Can't say as I blame you.

Even Patrick knows this is shit. x(

[Forkboy]

3. It's been a revealing insight, if nothing else.

K&R

[bvar22]

5. Rats....

Self-Destructing and leaving a sinking ship.(no offense, Swampy)
This way, MCAsshole can always maintain that he woulda won had Obama left him alone.

Obama needs to re-write his Afghanistan Policy, and heavily weight it toward leaving this un-winnable and ill-advised Military Adventure ASAP.

Simply close up shop and bring our boys & girls home.
Afghanistan, and its $Trillion in mineral wealth belongs to the people of Afghanistan.

Any WAR policy that depends on Hamid Karzai will NOT end well for the US.

Meet Hamid Karzai
or as Obama calls him, "The Government of Afghanistan".

He was appointed by Bush the Lesser to run Afghanistan.
He is one of the most despicable criminals in The World,
But NOW we like him so much
that our children fighting and dying in the deserts of Afghanistan to keep him in power.

Out!
NOW!

No Military Objective + No Exit Strategy = Senseless Destruction + Blood Spilled in Vain

[formercia]

10. Not to worry, the Taliban surely have plans for Karzai.

Sic Semper Tyrannis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Najibullah

[notadmblnd]

6. I hear he's pretty heavy drinker, doesn't sleep and only eats once a day

Sounds like a crackhead to me. Maybe we should drug test our Generals?

[femrap]

7. He's probably pissed

that he isn't getting a big enough cut of the opium trade.

[polly7]

8. Do did they share with NATO forces their opinion it was unwinnable?

"McChrystal's closest advisors speak openly in the article that they do not believe the war in Afghanistan is winnable. Here is how McChrystal's Chief of Operations told Rolling Stone's Michael Hastings that the war in Afghanistan is going to end: "'It's not going to look like a win, smell like a win or taste like a win' said Major General Bill Mayville, 'This is going to end in an argument.'"

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/06/22-8

Not that it would have made any difference to neo-CON Harper here, he's still all about cloning himself as Bush ... but how long do they expect U.S. and NATO forces to keep dying in an unwinnable war? I wonder if the soldier we lost yesterday knew it was unwinnable.

[Hissyspit]

9. .

[bemildred]

12. Tells us nothing we didn't already know.

It was a loser before they started, and lot's of people said so.

[suffragette]

13. Thanks for this post on the larger issue

I'd add more to his characterization of McChrystal of "frustrated and failing." Vicious, arrogant asshole comes to mind as a start there.

In the larger sense, what a horror that this is the crack team supposedly attempting to transform that nation. Team on crack seems more the case.

This feels like it could be a turning point in reexamining what we are there for, how and when we should leave and who should be in Afghanistan guiding and implementing that.

[Hissyspit]

15. kick nt

[Dover]

16. So long as the true goal for being there is profit, no attempts to play nice

will ring true with the Afghan people. And so McChrystal is the embodiment of the ugly truth behind the invasion of Afghanistan. Small people just get in the way of that goal, and if they could just kill them all without having to face the music, they would. And they are also playing the same game at home, trying to put a good face on what's happening there so the American public will go along with it.

So take a good long look at who we are....

Don't take the easy way out by crucifying the face of truth. That's scapegoating, when in fact the root of the problem is left to live on, hidden behind a more likeable, acceptable face. The real war for those in power is one of creating the p.r. that will mask their real intent. And clearly people like McChrystal don't feel the obligation or necessity of
wearing that mask and so we get a glimpse into the real face of America's
intent.

[Hissyspit]

17. .