Nobody can seriously argue that Barack Obama is fit to be commander in chief of the United States military. Nor were General McChrystal’s complaints about Obama unfounded. He is a military genius with undeniable expertise in counter insurgency.
However, McChrystal’s policies in Afghanistan have been putting our troops at unecessary risk:
Despite the tragedies and miscues, McChrystal has issued some of the strictest directives to avoid civilian casualties that the U.S. military has ever encountered in a war zone. It’s ‘insurgent math,’ as he calls it – for every innocent person you kill, you create 10 new enemies. He has ordered convoys to curtail their reckless driving, put restrictions on the use of air power and severely limited night raids. He regularly apologizes to Hamid Karzai when civilians are killed, and berates commanders responsible for civilian deaths. ‘For a while,’ says one U.S. official, ‘the most dangerous place to be in Afghanistan was in front of McChrystal after a ‘civ cas’ incident.’ The ISAF command has even discussed ways to make not killing into something you can win an award for: There’s talk of creating a new medal for ‘courageous restraint,’ a buzzword that’s unlikely to gain much traction in the gung-ho culture of the U.S. military.
But however strategic they may be, McChrystal’s new marching orders have caused an intense backlash among his own troops. Being told to hold their fire, soldiers complain, puts them in greater danger. ‘Bottom line?’ says a former Special Forces operator who has spent years in Iraq and Afghanistan. ‘I would love to kick McChrystal in the nuts. His rules of engagement put soldiers’ lives in even greater danger. Every real soldier will tell you the same thing.’
One soldier sums it up:
One soldier shows me the list of new regulations the platoon was given. ‘Patrol only in areas that you are reasonably certain that you will not have to defend yourselves with lethal force, the laminated card reads. For a soldier who has traveled halfway around the world to fight, that’s like telling a cop he should only patrol in areas where he knows he won’t have to make arrests. ‘Does that make any fucking sense?’ asks Pfc. Jared Pautsch. ‘We should just drop a fucking bomb on this place. You sit and ask yourself: What are we doing here?’
We don’t know if the General’s policies came from the military hating washed up 60′s radicals in Obama’s administration. But, that doesn’t let the General off the hook.
This is a tough one for those of us who instinctively side with our troops. In this case, supporting the troops may mean that a resignation by McChrystal would have been the most honorable outcome.
Gen McChrystal’s Risky Policies
Nobody can seriously argue that Barack Obama is fit to be commander in chief of the United States military. Nor were General McChrystal’s complaints about Obama unfounded. He is a military genius with undeniable expertise in counter insurgency.
However, McChrystal’s policies in Afghanistan have been putting our troops at unecessary risk:
One soldier sums it up:
We don’t know if the General’s policies came from the military hating washed up 60′s radicals in Obama’s administration. But, that doesn’t let the General off the hook.
This is a tough one for those of us who instinctively side with our troops. In this case, supporting the troops may mean that a resignation by McChrystal would have been the most honorable outcome.