Comments | c215: I Screw Afghanistan's Future

c215

I Screw Afghanistan's Future

Jun 22, 2010 22:34

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236?RS_show_page=0

Wow. The thought that a four-star COIN expert would hand the Taliban an IO (information/influence operations) victory blows my mind. I don't necessarily disagree with some of what is said, but the forum is wrong.

Or is it?

I refuse to believe he wasn't cognizant of how this ( Read more... )

books, afghanistan, oef 9-10, politicks, mvotm

Comments 5

schizmatic June 23 2010, 13:18:27 UTC

Yeah, I'm kind of agog that McChrystal would not only shoot his mouth off like that, but do so in effin' print. I guess we're about to get a chance to see how Mattis handles things.
On a side note, you and John are the two officers I know who're actually there on the ground, and both of you seem to endorse what NATO is up to, so I wonder how much of the antics of Karzai, Eikenberry, Holbrooke et al. are actually adversely affecting things on the ground.

c215 June 24 2010, 01:21:52 UTC

McChrystal's resignation is hardly a shock, but at least he had the integrity to fall on his sword.

I can't really say much in regards to either Eikenberry (who was still a LTG when I was there in '06) or Holbrooke, but Karzai is definitely regarded as an illegitimate stooge. When we were conducting security operations for the elections in AUG 2009, I spent quite a bit of time engaging Afghans in village centers and bazaars discussing 'national' politics. Overall I found the Afghans well informed of current events, issues and candidates (radio stations were very popular), but their real zeal was for district and provencial level governance/ reform, which is a grass roots victory for democracy. Unfortunately, there is still considerable variance across Afghanistan as a whole and I'm afraid time is against us.

(The comment has been removed)

c215 June 24 2010, 01:26:21 UTC

It's sad that sensationalism sells the way it does. Sarah Palin must be nutting herself over this right now.

dekarch June 23 2010, 21:07:23 UTC

I was just astonished. . .

The best theory I've seen so far is that he's decided he doesn't want to deal with Afghanistan anymore and being fired is better for his (theorized) political ambitions and future reputation than simply quitting.

midgardsorm June 25 2010, 04:05:00 UTC

"and being fired is better for his (theorized) political ambitions and future reputation than simply quitting."

Those were pretty much my exact thoughts. As odd as it seems, it allows him to save face and not be the general that "lost" in Afghanistan, as meaningless as that statement may be in the future.