Posted on 09/22/2009 7:47:30 AM PDT by CWW
McChrystal to resign if not given resources for Afghanistan
By Bill RoggioSeptember 21, 2009 4:17 PM
Within 24 hours of the leak of the Afghanistan assessment to The Washington Post, General Stanley McChrystal's team fired its second shot across the bow of the Obama administration. According to McClatchy, military officers close to General McChrystal said he is prepared to resign if he isn't given sufficient resources (read "troops") to implement a change of direction in Afghanistan:
Adding to the frustration, according to officials in Kabul and Washington, are White House and Pentagon directives made over the last six weeks that Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, not submit his request for as many as 45,000 additional troops because the administration isn't ready for it.
In the last two weeks, top administration leaders have suggested that more American troops will be sent to Afghanistan, and then called that suggestion "premature." Earlier this month, Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that "time is not on our side"; on Thursday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates urged the public "to take a deep breath."
...
In Kabul, some members of McChrystal's staff said they don't understand why Obama called Afghanistan a "war of necessity" but still hasn't given them the resources they need to turn things around quickly.
Three officers at the Pentagon and in Kabul told McClatchy that the McChrystal they know would resign before he'd stand behind a faltering policy that he thought would endanger his forces or the strategy.
"Yes, he'll be a good soldier, but he will only go so far," a senior official in Kabul said. "He'll hold his ground. He's not going to bend to political pressure."
On Thursday, Gates danced around the question of when the administration would be ready to receive McChrystal's request, which was completed in late August. "We're working through the process by which we want that submitted," he said.
The entire process followed by the military in implementing a change of course in Afghanistan is far different, and bizarrely so, from the process it followed in changing strategy in Iraq.
For Afghanistan, the process to decide on a course change began in March of this year, when Bruce Reidel was tasked to assess the situation. This produced the much-heralded yet vague "AfPak" assessment. Then, in May, General David McKiernan was fired and replaced by General McChrystal, who took command in June. General McChrystal's assessment hit President Obama's desk at the end of August, almost three months after he took command. And yet now in the last half of September, the decision on additional forces has yet to be submitted to the administration.
Contrast this with Iraq in the fall of 2006. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was fired just one day after the elections in early November. The Keane-Kagan plan for Iraq was submitted to President Bush shortly afterward, and encompassed both the assessment of the situation and the recommended course of action, including the recommended number of troops to be deployed to deal with the situation. General David Petraeus replaced General George Casey in early February 2007, and hit the ground running; the surge strategy was in place, troops were being mustered to deploy to Iraq, and commanders on the ground were preparing for and executing the new orders. The first of the surge units began to arrive in Iraq only weeks later, in March.
Today, the military is perceiving that the administration is punting the question of a troop increase in Afghanistan, and the military is even questioning the administration's commitment to succeed in Afghanistan. The leaking of the assessment and the report that McChrystal would resign if he is not given what is needed to succeed constitute some very public pushback against the administration's waffling on Afghanistan.
Luckily...thankfully (to God in Heaven) huge numbers of Americans are awakening and will begin driving these quislings and vipers out in 2010, and then again in 2012.
Or the leak can be bogus. Payback courtesy of the Pentagon.
“We will know we have success when the rest of the world loves us.”
Especially the French and the jihadists.
Eisenhauer was anything but a Hawkish Socialist.
“I’d like to see the general change thr Rules of Engagement to realistic ones and dare obozo to fire him!”
So would I, but Obama might throw him in a New Gulag.
Yep. Nailed it.
In fairness, they've been tied for quite a while. But under Obama, it's more like “cuffs”.
has a pair????? he withheld support for a group of marines trapped in a firefight because of the new rules of engagement...this son of a bitch should be embarassed to wear stars and should be lined up against a wall and shot
When do we get to fire the a$$ clown?
He doesn't even show any aptitutde whatsoever for negotiation of any kind. Something must either be handed to him or he lies and steals it. Negotiation in good faith is a skill he has zero experience with.
>>> It’s time to draw the line in the sand. No support — no troops. <<<<
If they are not going to deal with Pakistan, there is nothing further to be gained, and the troops should be brought home.
Macchrystal’s entire unclassified “leak” report is about nation building.
Amen. Those ROE's are killing us.
Vietnam II
You are obviously not referring to the CiC.
You need to think a bit before hitting the “post” button.
He isn’t quitting. He is sending a signal to Obama that he won’t put our men and women in jeopardy. Threatening to resign is good “strategery”, and sends a clear message to all of us that we better get “**** or get off the pot”.
So, how many of us are on the phone to our congresscritters today? Are we quitting on our military leaders? I think that is the question.
No more Vietnam type behaviors from the oval office, please!
Joe Wilson was right!
Wow. General McChrystal is an Obama appointee, approved by the Senate on June 10, 2009 to take command in Afghanistan.
READ BETWEEN THE LINES!
For a General to have said this and for this to be leaked means the Obama WH is falling appart.
Actually WORSE THAN FALLING APPART.
Is the Obama WH having a mental breakdown?
HOWEVER KEEP IN MIND,,,,democrats running in 2010 still want Obama to appear because Obama is a lock for the minority vote.
Nope. He’s only run the Joint Special Operations Command for FIVE FREAKING YEARS before this. Obviously he’s never heard of Trashcanistan before.
He has caught some flak because of the restrictive ROEs that are now in place there that have made it harder for us to bomb terrorists when there is virtually any chance of a civilian getting a hangnail within a half-mile. But the guy is a professional warrior, with a solid reputation, and he’s got a special ops background so counter-insurgency (and that’s what this is, a super-sized counter-insurgency operation) is one of his specialties. I’ll cut him some slack since he’s the pro and I’m just a sillyvilian.
}:-)4
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