...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
Joe Wilson knows why.
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.
OUCH !
And a commander who probably just lost his career. I have a lot of respect for the guy. He's doing the "right thing", but it's going to cost him his career. Even if Obama sends more troops, he still has to fire McChrystal to save face.
Of course he would probably have been fired, anyway. He's going to get the blame for the lack of progress in Afghanistan, even though it's congress and the president who are holding out on the resources needed to succeed.
I wonder when the military will decide it isn’t worth dying for a bunch of dumbass voters that vote for the likes of Gore Kerry and Obama
...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
Joe Wilson knows why.
No...that general will be needed for Waco 2 or the Obama "Civilian Defense Corps"
Take a look at the last two paragraphs of Roggio’s article. Therein lies the reason that the report was leaked.
McCrystal was moved from Iraq to Afghanistan, he hasn’t had the job for very long at all.
He has done his investigations and assessments, this is his recommendation of those findings. If Obama wants a political answer to the problem he evidently picked the wrong guy to handle it, McCrystal is a man who wants to fight and win, either that is the plan or he walks evidently.
Good for him.
These are MUST reads for those who have anyone serving or who care about and support our military.
“AMBUSHED MARINES’AID CALL REJECTED”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2340992/posts
“WE’RE PINNED DOWN:’4 U.S. MARINES DIE IN AFGAN ABUSH”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2335142/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2336737/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2335336/posts
“GIS TOLD NOT TO RISK CIVILIAN LIVES”
http://www.military.com/cs/Satellite?c=maArticle&cid=1199422047446&pagename=News%2FnwsLayout
“OBAMA’S RULES OF ENGAGEMENT IN AFGHANISTAN COSTING OUR TROOPS LIVES”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2335891/posts
“BAGRAM INMATES CAN CHALLENGE DETENTION: PENTAGON”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2339337/posts
“ANALYSIS: WHITE HOUSE POSTPONING HARD CALLS ON WAR”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2340176/posts
“NO DEADLINE FOR TROOPS WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN: OBAMA ADMN”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2334327/posts
“MILITARY LEERY OF AFGHANISTAN ESCALATION WITH NO CLEAR GOALS”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2335026/posts
“Bambi better get off his butt and get moving:”
Agreed. Where is the “Republican” leadership on this? Anyone plan to grow a set. pitch a fit and force Bambi off his butt? Anyone?????
Plenty of ACORN and SEIU jobs, Sowing Burka's, Unionizing the Poppy Fields, and hey organizing the Slave Trade......
Hey that will help fix their economy and stop their anger by wealth redistribution.....
( sarc/ off )
Wesley Clark and folks like him are the reason some soldiers shot their officers in the head in Viet Nam.
Even if it means watching his troops get slaughtered?
He is sworn to protect the Constitution, is training to be a force for good in the world, he loves the enlisted men and women and deplores the gulft chain of command places between them and, yet, I feel as though I don’t want him to put his honor and integrity on the line for a bunch of panty-waist ostridges inside the Beltway. They are deplorable and have treated those entrusted with our safety just like they did when I was young. I become queasy when I hear it, as I remember the Anti-War jerks of my youth. NO ONE WANTS WAR, but there are those who courageously volunteer to keep the peace and when they are shipped home in metal crates, packed in ice because of these ignoble tyrants, I want to scream.
I want to go up to D.C. and give them a slap they’ll never forget. I wouldn’t dignify their presence in any other way.-
Any factual proof to backup that threat by Nancy and Bush caving in?
>>> If true, expect the affirmative action president to fire him and replace him with a Wesley Clark clone.
True... and it is NOT good that this got out prematurely (if true)
I hope the general is prepared to make his move before he gets fired... because if he is fired first, his statement carries less weight.
Shame on his staff for letting this out!
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