Obama is as lost and overwhelmed as President as McChrystal was in Afghanistan. They both came from being big fish in little ponds and masters of cloistered environments to big fish in big ponds with lots of other big fish, just as aggressive and sly as they are, if not more so.
Both of them have found out that competing at that level takes a kind of aloofness, introspection, and grit that they don't have. They are left with trying to sort out the machinations of those around them and lack the big picture experience to put into perspective, competing ideas. They become stuck and indecisive. They became marginalized from each other.
Neither Obama or McChrystal want to do their jobs anymore. At least McChrystal had a way out.....
They both agreed on a strategy of counter-insurgency rather than counter-terrorism in Afghanistan. This is their critical mistake. They should have picked both and had separate commands to prosecute both unique kinds of conflict, side by side.
Counter-insurgency requires years of hearts and minds, particularly in a highly decentralized, primitive, and remote tribal-run area like Afghanistan. Yet they both agreed to scale down in a two year window..... Astonishing. They both never grasped that the goal of war is to get your enemy to quit fighting. In two years in Afghanistan? This is a people, the Pakhtun, many of whom can still name the British commanders that were defeated in 1842.
Rest assured, Petraeus will assess the battlefield and in about a month, sit down with Obama and Emmanuel and Gates and tell them to stop looking at the calendar and decide to fight smarter and longer, years longer. Or cut our losses, garrison the country and conduct raids and UAV attacks at a much lower cost in blood and money.
To conduct a total war of counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism will take twice the troops, eradication of the poppies, and will require operations in Pakistan. McChrystal had come to know that and had told Obama so. He was told flat out no, do what you can with what you've got. McChrystal did not want to just "manage" the war until the scale down and that was all he saw that he could do.
Dis-spirited, he let his guard down, got sloppy with his comments and sabotaged his own command by challenging Obama.
McChrystal chose to be a quitter and allow a fresh command to take over, rather than be a historical loser.
SOURCE: FREE REPUBLIC
Both of them have found out that competing at that level takes a kind of aloofness, introspection, and grit that they don't have. They are left with trying to sort out the machinations of those around them and lack the big picture experience to put into perspective, competing ideas. They become stuck and indecisive. They became marginalized from each other.
Neither Obama or McChrystal want to do their jobs anymore. At least McChrystal had a way out.....
They both agreed on a strategy of counter-insurgency rather than counter-terrorism in Afghanistan. This is their critical mistake. They should have picked both and had separate commands to prosecute both unique kinds of conflict, side by side.
Counter-insurgency requires years of hearts and minds, particularly in a highly decentralized, primitive, and remote tribal-run area like Afghanistan. Yet they both agreed to scale down in a two year window..... Astonishing. They both never grasped that the goal of war is to get your enemy to quit fighting. In two years in Afghanistan? This is a people, the Pakhtun, many of whom can still name the British commanders that were defeated in 1842.
Rest assured, Petraeus will assess the battlefield and in about a month, sit down with Obama and Emmanuel and Gates and tell them to stop looking at the calendar and decide to fight smarter and longer, years longer. Or cut our losses, garrison the country and conduct raids and UAV attacks at a much lower cost in blood and money.
To conduct a total war of counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism will take twice the troops, eradication of the poppies, and will require operations in Pakistan. McChrystal had come to know that and had told Obama so. He was told flat out no, do what you can with what you've got. McChrystal did not want to just "manage" the war until the scale down and that was all he saw that he could do.
Dis-spirited, he let his guard down, got sloppy with his comments and sabotaged his own command by challenging Obama.
McChrystal chose to be a quitter and allow a fresh command to take over, rather than be a historical loser.
SOURCE: FREE REPUBLIC
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