Posts Tagged ‘McChrystal’
Pentagon report: McChrystal did not violate US military policy
A Pentagon investigation has found insufficient evidence that General Stanley McChrystal, the former US and Nato commander in Afghanistan sacked by Barack Obama last year, violated military policy.
McChrystal’s dismissal came after publication of an article in Rolling Stone, The Runaway General, which portrayed him and his inner circle as being out of control, and making contemptuous and dismissive remarks about the US civilian leadership…
The investigation expressed doubts about the version of some events reported in the article, written by Michael Hastings, who spent several days with McChrystal and his team. The investigation added that it could not substantiate some of the quotes.
The investigation, carried out by the Pentagon’s office of inspector general, concluded: “The evidence was insufficient to substantiate a violation of applicable department of defense standards with respect to any of the incidents on which we focused. Not all of the events at issue occurred as reported in the article…A polite way of saying Hastings is a liar and Rolling Stone is opportunist and unconcerned with journalistic standards.
The article, published in June last year, suggested that McChrystal was unimpressed with Obama at their first meeting, and that one of his team viewed the White House national security adviser, James Jones, as a clown. His team was also alleged to have been dismissive of vice-president Joe Biden and the late state department envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke.
At the time, McChrystal apologised after the piece, saying it was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened. He flew back to Washington to see Obama, who dismissed him, saying: “The conduct represented in the recently published article does not meet the standard that should be set by a commanding general.”
The investigation’s conclusions open Obama to charges that he was too hasty in dismissing McChrystal.
The former general, though no longer in the army, was partially rehabilitated last week when the White House invited him to join a panel to try to improve the life of military families. The report reached the White House 3 days before the job offer.
The new investigation is more favourable to McChrystal than an initial one published in August last year.
There are lots of details in the report. Mostly boring high dudgeon over situations and context as unimportant than who gives the finger to whom in your daily commute.
It probably explains the how and why of Obama inviting General McChrystal into the Administration, last week. As admission that our news-as-entertainment-media prompted the removal of a significant military leader from the South Asian theatre. The only surprise is that the Kongressional Klowns didn’t follow through with their usual opportunism, sound bites and slapstick. Yet.
The surge is working in Afghanistan
The video speaks for itself. General McChrystal is confident the surge he has set into motion in Afghanistan is providing results. Click on the photo. Watch the video. Reflect upon what you know, what you see, where this is going.
Meanwhile:
U.S. forces have driven the Taliban from most towns and villages in the strategic Helmand province of Afghanistan, leaving incoming troops with the mission of holding key areas and rebuilding the economy, Marine commanders say.
“They’ve taken on the Taliban, the insurgency, right in the heartland and they’ve defeated them,” said Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Mills in an interview with USA TODAY.
Much of the Taliban’s leadership and support comes from the mostly Pashtun province and nearby Kandahar. Helmand, the country’s largest province, also produces most of the country’s poppy crop, which has helped fund the insurgency.
Recent attention has been focused on President Obama’s orders to send about 30,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan this year. But an influx of Marines to Helmand province last year has produced dramatic results, raising hopes that the gains can be consolidated and spread elsewhere, Mills said.
“I see us moving away from the clear phase and moving into the hold and build” phase, Mills said.
Germany didn’t get the memo about policy changes?
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission
A rift between the US and Germany over the conduct of the war in Afghanistan widened today as both countries sought to shift blame over a botched bombing raid that led to scores of civilians being killed.
Berlin defended the raid as “militarily necessary” to protect German troops, even though it went against the express orders of the new US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, to safeguard civilians…
The strike was called in by a senior German officer. The German government said the officer feared two hijacked oil tankers, stuck in a riverbed, were to be used for a suicide bombing of the German base at Kunduz, in the north of the country.
While the US has expressed most of its criticism in private, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, did not hold back today, siding with the US in condemning the German decision.
“What an error of judgment! More than 90 dead all because of a simple lorry that was, moreover, immobilised in a riverbed. Why didn’t they send in ground troops to recover the fuel tank? … General McChrystal telephoned me to apologise and to say that he himself hadn’t given the order to attack,” Karzai said, in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro.
The folks on the ground aren’t especially concerned with which uniform was worn by whom – when they’re burying their dead.
In Afghanistan, attacking from the air with a bit more care
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission
After taking repeated fire from Taliban fighters holed up in a building last week, a group of American Marines in southern Afghanistan called in airstrikes to wipe out the threat.
But the Navy F/A-18 fighter pilots who responded worried that bombing the militants could hurt civilians, and suggested a different solution to the ground troops. The airmen then roared in low and fast, without firing a shot, in a deafening pass that frightened the militants into silence.
“It used to be, where do you want the bomb?” said Capt. Thomas P. Lalor, the commander of the air wing on this aircraft carrier, which provides about one-third of the combat support flights for American ground forces in Afghanistan. “Now, it’s much more collaborative.”
The adjustment reflects orders last month by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the new United States commander in Afghanistan, that sharply limit the use of airstrikes to try to reduce the civilian deaths that he and other top officers said were eroding support for the American-led mission.
General McChrystal said the use of airstrikes during firefights would in most cases be limited to when American and other allied troops were in danger of being overrun…
“It makes our judgments more important,” said Cmdr. Art delaCruz, 41, the commander of another squadron, VFA-22, of the new caution. “There’s a saying that the most important bomb is the one you bring back.”
For the air wing aboard, the 125 combat missions flown over Afghanistan in its first week here have a familiar feel. The same carrier and its aircraft were on duty here for nearly four months starting in August and conducted 1,150 combat missions supporting troops in Afghanistan. The commanders said there had been no reports of civilian casualties from any of the missions.
RTFA. That last sentence in the last paragraph says a lot about the skill and talent of the pilots flying those missions.
It’s only a guess – and the Feds would croak if it was a good guess – but, I think I know at least one of the cowboys riding herd on this exercise and I have all the confidence in the world in his ability and judgment. We disagree all the time about politics and agree surprisingly often on how to run a war.
Hope he makes it home to his wife and kids, real soon.
