I doubt three months ago he never heard of the place. He is the guy O appointed and I assume he did so because McChrystal told him he could do the job.
From the tone of your post it's pretty evident you have never been in the military. If you are saying that General McChrystal had never heard of the place three months ago...now that is just flat a dumb statement!
You gotta be shi++in' us. This is one of the dumbest things I have ever read.
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
You’d be wrong to assume that. McChrystal has served in Afghanisatan. I’ve an acquaintence(former sp.ops.) who served under him and would follow him to the ends of the earth. In his opinion, McChrystal is unequivocally the most qualifed to turn the situation around. If he can’t do it, then likely it can’t be done. The general sees the games being played in Washington and has drawn a line in the sand.
I'd bet my last buck that Obama went with Petraeus' recommendation.
From what I hear, McChrystal is an extremely capable general and is quite experienced with our operations in Afghanistan.
But things change rapidly in a place like Afghanistan and his assessment has obviously changed!
He heard of Afghanistan, alright:
“McChrystal was implicated but not disciplined in the Army’s bungled handling of the death of Army Cpl. Pat Tillman. The former NFL star was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004.”
“Although the Army knew within days that fratricide might have been involved, Tillman’s family was not informed for more than a month and the erroneous information was repeated at a memorial service for Tillman, who had been recommended for a Silver Star.”
“McChrystal acknowledged to Pentagon investigators that he had suspected that Tillman was killed by fratricide before approving the medal.”