Afghanistan Commander's Report Submitted, But Secret - Al Pessin, Voice of America. The US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has delivered his eagerly-awaited assessment to his bosses in Washington and Brussels, but the document is being kept secret. Pentagon officials say it will be followed by international consultations and possibly requests for more US and international forces. According to a NATO release, General McChrystal writes that "the situation in Afghanistan is serious, but success is achievable." The general is quoted as saying success will require "a revised implementation strategy," as well as commitment, resolve, and increased unity of effort. But that is all that has been made public. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he has not yet seen the assessment, but told reporters what he expects it to contain. "I think that his assessment, without having read it, I suspect is going to point to the challenges that remain before us in Afghanistan. I think it will also point to areas where we can do better and can make improvements in our strategy and tactics," he said. Some civilian advisers invited to Afghanistan to help General McChrystal prepare his assessment have said he needs more troops to put down a resurgent Taliban and establish security at least in Afghan population centers. Some analyses of the current situation have been fairly dire, including one by the top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, who has said security in Afghanistan is "serious and deteriorating." But Secretary Gates says he expects a balanced assessment from General McChrystal.
Gen. McChrystal Calls for New Strategy in Afghan War - Yochi J. Dreazen and Peter Spiegel, Wall Street Journal. The US and its allies need to change course in Afghanistan to salvage the faltering war effort and prevent the Taliban from extending their recent gains, the top American commander in Afghanistan warned in a highly anticipated strategic assessment. Gen. Stanley McChrystal said that conditions on the ground were "serious," but expressed confidence that the war could still be won if the US and NATO better coordinated their efforts and focused more heavily on protecting the Afghan populace from Taliban attack. The report, which wasn't released publicly, concluded that the Taliban had survived a series of recent US military strikes and were pushing deeper into once-stable parts of northern and western Afghanistan, according to three officials familiar with its contents. The report argued that the US and its allies needed to devote more troops to vulnerable Afghan population centers in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar Province and eastern Afghanistan's Khost Province, the officials said. It also emphasized the importance of limiting corruption in Kabul and building stronger local and provincial governments across the country, the officials said. The report didn't call for any additional US forces. Gen. McChrystal will instead detail any request for more troops in a second document next month, according to US officials familiar with the matter. The commander is considering asking for up to eight additional brigades, or roughly 40,000 troops, but the officials said no decisions had yet been made.
US General Calls for New Strategy Against Taliban - William Branigin, Washington Post. The commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan called Monday for a revised strategy and increased unity in efforts to defeat radical Islamist insurgents in the country, saying that the situation is "serious" but that success can still be achieved. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal delivered the assessment as he sent a long-awaited strategic review to the Pentagon by way of the US Central Command. The review was also being sent to NATO headquarters. McChrystal stopped short of requesting more troops for Afghanistan in the review, but news agencies quoted NATO officials as saying he was expected to do so in a separate recommendation. The strategic review comes as Afghanistan's radical Taliban movement inflicts increasing casualties on US and NATO forces in an insurgency against the government of President Hamid Karzai, who is locked in a slow-moving reelection battle against former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.
Groundwork Is Laid for New Troops in Afghanistan - Dexter Filkens, New York Times. The top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, said Monday that conditions on the ground were "serious" but that the war here is still winnable, part of a long-awaited assessment of the American-led war. Officials in Washington say that while the general's classified report did not request additional American troops, it effectively lays the groundwork for such a request in coming weeks. The change in strategy envisioned by General McChrystal would invest the United States more extensively in Afghanistan than it has been since toppling the Taliban government in 2001, Washington officials said. For President Obama, who already ordered another 21,000 troops to Afghanistan this year, the prospect of an even more extensive commitment of American troops would test his political commitment to the war at a time when he is already trying to tamp down discontent in his liberal base. In recent weeks, senior American officers here have said that they do not have enough troops to succeed. The American commanders and officials in Kabul were ordered to neither reveal the details of the assessment nor talk about them.
Gen. McChrystal Calls for Overhaul of Afghanistan War Strategy - Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times. The top commander in Afghanistan has submitted his initial assessment of the war in Afghanistan, calling today for a full overhaul of the military's war strategy, NATO officials said today. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the newly appointed head of US and NATO forces, wants to intensify development of Afghan security forces, improve the country's government and refocus economic development initiatives, according to a description of the assessment released by NATO officials. The assessment is meant to be a more "philosophical" look at the current situation and does not contain any explicit requests for more troops or other resources. "The situation in Afghanistan is serious, but success is achievable and demands a revised implementation strategy, commitment and resolve, and increased unity of effort," McChrystal said in the assessment, according to NATO officials. The assessment reflects McChrystal's belief that the military needs to follow an overhauled counter-insurgency strategy that focuses on making Afghan citizens feel safer, military officials said. The report was forwarded today to NATO and to Gen. David H. Petraeus, head of US Central Command, which controls forces in the Mideast.
US Commander General Stanley McChrystal: Afghanistan Strategy is Failing - Matt Spence and Deborah Haynes, The Times. The campaign in Afghanistan is failing and the strategies in place must be revised, the commander of US and NATO forces said today. General Stanley McChrystal described the situation in the country as "serious", but said success could be achieved there with a new approach. Gen McChrystal today delivered the results of his 60-day strategic assessment to US and NATO commanders in a long-awaited review of strategy ordered by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates. He said: "The situation in Afghanistan is serious, but success is achievable and demands a revised implementation strategy, commitment and resolve, and increased unity of effort." Gen McChrystal has been working on the review since President Obama put him in charge of the war on June 15. His review, sent to the US military's Central Command (CentCom), responsible for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to NATO headquarters in Brussels, is not expected to make firm recommendations about future troop levels. That recommendation is due out in another report later in the year. However, military officials say it will form the basis for a decision about force size which could be taken within weeks.
Obama Aides See Need for More Troops in Afghanistan - Adam Entous and Arshad Mohammed, Reuters. Many of President Barack Obama's top advisers on Afghanistan agree with military commanders that more troops are needed to reverse Taliban gains in the country's east and south, US officials said on Monday. But there is wariness within the White House to another large-scale increase at a time when public support for the eight-year-old war against a resurgent Taliban is eroding, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Military commanders and administration and congressional leaders have held preliminary discussions about future troop options, including sending a second 5,000-member Marine Regimental Combat Team to southern Afghanistan, a Taliban stronghold, participants said. This would boost the number of Marines in the country to 15,000-18,000 from just over 10,000. The debate is expected to intensify after Monday's long-awaited assessment of the war by US Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. McChrystal called for the United States and its allies to change strategy, laying the ground for a likely request for more troops later, officials said. McChrystal has about 103,000 troops under his command, including 63,000 Americans, half of whom arrived this year as part of an escalation strategy started by former President George W. Bush and ramped up under Obama. The force is set to rise to 110,000, including 68,000 Americans, by year's end, stretching the US military to its limits, military officials said.
Marine Commander Sees Progress in Afghanistan - Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times. The general in charge of US Marines in Afghanistan said Monday that progress is being made in wresting a key southern province from Taliban control but cautioned that process will be slow and difficult to measure. Marine Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland also said the Marine Corps was ready to send more troops to Afghanistan if asked by top US officials. "Everything we're doing is preparing to put more forces in theater," Helland said. The Marines' goal is to train the Afghan security forces to carry the fight to the Taliban. The training is going slowly, Helland said. "They don't understand leadership, they don't understand noncommissioned officers," he said. "To use a Marine term, they're a herd. But once trained, they're warriors." Helland is set to retire Friday after 41 years of military service, beginning as an Army enlisted man with the Special Forces in Vietnam. For the last two years he has been the commanding general of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Force Central Command, with authority over Marines in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Marines have 12,000 troops in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, where Taliban fighters are entrenched and opium poppy fields provide an illegal cash crop that funds the insurgency against the US-backed central government in Kabul, the capital.
New Strategy, Not Troops, Needed for Afghanistan - Joshua Foust, Registan. General Stanley McChrystal has finally come out and said what the rest of us have known for years: there needs to be some fundamentally new thinking in Afghanistan. While the various news stories talk about McChrystal's desire for a new strategy, all they seem to focus on is the (informed) assumption that he will request new troops in a separate, perhaps followup assessment. It seems, then, that Gen. McChrystal is taking his cues from Anthony Cordesman, who is out in the Washington Post saying that what we really need is more troops. Like many commentators on McChrystal's review team, Cordesman comes from a deep background in military studies but knows comparatively little about the vital civil side of the equation - therefore, all the problems he sees are problems of security and not necessarily other things. What is needed, however, is not necessarily more troops. As I wrote back in January, adding more troops to the mix would only make sense if they were going to serve a new strategy, one fundamentally different from the current, failing, strategy in the country. The biggest sin Gen. McChrystal has committed so far, at least in my view, is that there is actually very little "new" about his command so far, fawning media coverage notwithstanding. So if the reports of General McChrystal's report are right, then he is making the right decision to craft a new strategy for the country. The trouble is, to really know how to move forward, simply having an intimate understanding of the Army and military operations will only get you so far. You also have to have an intimate understanding of Afghanistan as well, and that kind of understanding simply wasn't on the McChrystal review team (nor is it on the many think tank panels that purport to discuss Afghanistan but just rehash vague generalities)