Following the bloodiest month for Australian, NATO and US troop deaths, the top military commander in Afghanistan has been replaced with a general on record supporting a surge and rapid withdrawal.
President Barack Obama fired General Stanley McChyrstal today for comments in a controversial Rolling Stone magazine profile and nominated General David Petraeus to lead troops in a 2011 withdrawal deadline.
It comes as Australian Defence Minister John Faulkner yesterday indicated Australian troops could be ready to hand over local security responsibilities “within two to four years”, far exceeding the timeframe Obama is attempting.
“This is a change in personnel but it is not a change in policy,” Obama said today in a press conference, flanked by Petraeus and all the top Pentagon leaders. “I don’t make this decision based on any difference in policy with General McChrystal, as we are in full agreement about our strategy. Nor do I make this decision out of any sense of personal insult.”
Obama was left with no choice but to fire McChrystal, who was recalled from Kandahar this week, after Rolling Stone quoted the general and his top advisors mocking their civilian leaders, including Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, and dismissive of Obama’s advisors.
McChyrstal had been publicly loyal to Obama’s plan to exit the increasingly unpopular war as soon as possible, but after he did not get all the troops he requested last year was undercut by insider leaks suggesting the withdrawal deadline was not achievable with current troop numbers and dwindling commitment from international allies.
That scuttlebutt — from military and civilian advisors — could turn around now, as many US security commentators were quick to recognise Obama will find a philosophical ally in Petraeus, known as the warrior-scholar of the Pentagon and greatly admired on Capitol Hill. His confirmation by the US Senate is expected to be quick and bipartisan.
Petraeus himself authored the surge counter-insurgency policy Obama is pining his Afghanistan withdrawal plans on. However, Petraeus told a Senate hearing last week he would recommend extending the deadline if the situation on the ground required it.
US security commentators today said Petraeus may be in a position, having helped the president, of being able to demand more troops.
“Petraeus buys into the idea we can get in and get out in a year. Told ‘out by 2011’, he replied ‘yes sir, I agree’,” Jonathan Alder, author of The Promise about Obama’s 1st year, said.
US generals do operate under the same civilian leadership and chain of command rules as their Australian counterparts, but at top levels are seen unofficially as political figures in their own right, and surround themselves with personal supporters much like a government minister. Firing a four-star general for public comments has occurred as recently as 2008 under President George W Bush.
Petraeus has been widely assumed to desire a post-military political career, even as lofty as the presidency. Crikey watched as he collapsed dramatically last week during Senate questioning on Afghanistan, and was assisted in leaving the room for a 30-minute break, later explaining he was dehydrated.
Earlier this week Crikey reported most Australians now want troops out of Afghanistan. Support for the war had dropped to single digits and opposition was as high as 60%. Australia has suffered 16 deaths in Afghanistan, including three in this week’s NATO helicopter crash.
Bullshit. Obama, as Senator, was scathing of Petraeus’ surge strategy in Iraq. Now he call on the General to implement the same strategy?
The President needs to either apologise for getting it so wrong the first time around, or to explain why he thinks it will work now. He has done neither.
Instead, he has killed off a fighting general because some of McChrystal’s aides had a few chice observations of that idiot Vice-President.
Good luck, General Petraeus. You’ll need it.
What was McChyrstal doing allowing a loony leftist occasional reporter with a girlfriend killed in Iraq writing a piece for anti-war San Francisco-style hippy left Rolling Stone magazine?
Maybe he got tired fighting with both his hands shackled behind his back by his incoherently silly jerk Commander-in-Chief?
I reckon Obama’s political choices were to sack or “section 8” McChrystal. However, damage has been done. Obama is now presiding over Vietnam II.
“Afghanistan coalition strategy stays”?!
I waded through a few pages of the Rolling Stone article.
It was like a Hunter S Thomspon story, minus drugs and any kind of moral compass.
The overall impression conveyed is that the American military leadership exists in a semi-psychotic cocoon. I imagine that’s fairly accurate. The American presence in Afghanistan is primarily an exercise is pissing off the locals.
This is the gloomy appraisal by Gordon Duff of Veterans Today:
(see http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/06/23/gordon-duff-the-afghanistan-circus-mcchrystal-leaves-the-center-ring/ )
These realities seemed to escape the general during his tenure in Afghanistan:
* Only a small minority of insurgents fighting the US qualify under our definition of Taliban. As the word “taliban” means “student,” the wider use easily applies to any follower of the teachings, Mohammed (Peace be on Him) , Jesus Christ or Buddha. Had we not placed Karzai in Kabul, we would not have a war today.
* Karzai was defeated in a rigged election. What this means is that, despite massive voter fraud, it was still necessary for him to rig election results too. He lost by that much.
* Karzai’s recent efforts have been to gain further control of the electoral process, using influence paid for with drug money, fraudulent awards of US contracts and outright gangsterism.
* General McChrystal is being criticized for strict rules of engagements to prevent civilian casualties. Many call him weak for this. He is really weak for failing to inform America that we are fighting civilians, the entire nation of Afghanistan. The only person in the country we are sure isn’t Talian is Karzai. They woudn’t have him.
* It would have simply been acceptable for General McChrystal to resign rather than slinking away from a disasterous military defeat by petty whining, no matter how accurate, carefully calculated to force the president to remove him.