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.
So you don't buy the theory that he was buying time for England to mobilize and get a good start at rearming themselves for war?
I’d rather see McChrystal ask that comsymp crypto muzzie in the White House to resign
I remember that and was furious. Think we can figure out where the ROE’s came from now — straight from the peaceniks in the WH.
Not to mention those who influence THEM....
(Big ole’ Sarc!)
bttt
Yeah, their time has come don’t ja know?
The comments are strangely lacking of opinion about Secretary Gates. After all, HE and Petraeus are McChrystal’s bosses.
I’m with you on this. I have 3 sons in the military and this stuff makes me so mad I can’t stand it.
We don’t have to read Alinksy’s “Rules” as we are seeing them play out before our eyes. Disgusting!
Thank you. FYI, he’s presently stateside at Ft. Benning. He’s an instructor on the machine gun range. However, he’s been in this MOS for over a year and can be reassigned. He wants to select his next assignment as opposed to allowing the Army to choose for him. He’s looking at requesting a combat assignment with a unit based at Ft. Lewis WA.
For what it’s worth, I wrote a letter to Congress today asking my representatives to urge the administration to follow General McChrystal’s recommendation for more troops. I suggest we all do as well. It won’t take much of your time, and hey, it just might work.
Maybe..... 10 to 1, most of the top brass are demoRATs in disguise. That’s why 0bozo can assemble a brass ful of Quislings to stand behind him & support him. Traitors as far as I am concerned. It remains to be seen how General McChrystal will act in face of 0bozo’s waffling.
If he really had a pair, he ought to be challenging 0bozo on whether he is a U.S. citizen and whether he meets the natural born qualifications to be U.S. president.
0boyman isn't ready for it? You can't vote 'present' on this, you sorry sack of dog excrement. The Presidency is not an internship.
Amen!
.
there's nearly ZERO opportunity to succeed at nation-building in Afghanistan.
Hunt-kill Al Queada...and follow them to THEIR sources of funding and support in Pakistan and Iran.
Yeah, like THAT's going to happen.
Still, it's the only way to win this thing. Otherwise, we WILL have another Viet Nam...trying to pacify a nation, when all of the territory surrounding it is off limits. THAT's what would be crazy.
I wish the whole military could resign! The rules of engagement make it impossible for our guys to do their job. Maybe the leadership sees this and does not want to see our boys sacrificed. My son is in line for deployment. In the meantime, he says he has not fired a rifle since March. He is very anxious and not feeling prepared.
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