I love[d] McChrystal, but this HAS to be a joke?!
So, under GWB we drive back the Taliban and help a fledgling (albeit now possibly corrupt) democracy set itself up, and after just one freaking year of Zer0bummer’s dithering and incompetence, we are merely hoping to leave Afghanistan with the Taliban back in control so they can restart the beaheadings in the soccer stadium?!
NO .. FREAKING .. WAY!!
McChrystal is taking orders from Obama. This comes straight from the WH. Same with the furor about the Trijicon sights.
UnFReakingbelievable.
FT: Do you think then that it would be conceivable that this conflict could end with senior figures in the Taliban perhaps playing a role in a future government in Kabul?
Gen McChrystal: It’s hard to speculate about individuals, but I think that anybody who dedicates themselves to the future and not the past, and anybody whose future is focused on the right kinds of things for Afghanistan, under a constitutional fair umbrella, then I think it’s likely that it will be a wide participation.
FT: So it sounds from what you’re saying that you wouldn’t be on principle opposed to the idea that some of the insurgent leaders that you are fighting now might one day be part of a future administration in Kabul?
Gen McChrystal: It wouldn’t be mind to choose, it would be the Afghan people’s decision to choose. But I personally believe that the Afghan people will want to represent themselves from the entire Afghan population.
FT: The implication seems to be that although it’s not your job to negotiate with insurgents, or determine the shape of a future government, your personal feeling is that it may be the case that one day members of the Taliban are in Kabul, and there’s some sort of peaceful settlement, and that’s acceptable.
Gen McChrystal: As a soldier, my personal feeling is that there’s been enough fighting, and that what we need to do – all of us – is to do the fighting necessary to shape conditions where people can get on with their lives, and everybody can make a decision where fighting’s not the direction that it needs to go in. You just really don’t make progress, politically, during fighting. What I think we do is try to shape conditions which allow people to come to a truly equitable solution to how the Afghan people are governed.