“…When it comes to Afghanistan, history is not on McChrystal’s side. The only foreign invader to have any success here was Genghis Khan – and he wasn’t hampered by things like human rights, economic development and press scrutiny. The COIN doctrine, bizarrely, draws inspiration from some of the biggest Western military embarrassments in recent memory: France’s nasty war in Algeria (lost in 1962) and the American misadventure in Vietnam (lost in 1975). McChrystal, like other advocates of COIN, readily acknowledges that counterinsurgency campaigns are inherently messy, expensive and easy to lose. “Even Afghans are confused by Afghanistan,” he says. But even if he somehow manages to succeed, after years of bloody fighting with Afghan kids who pose no threat to the U.S. homeland, the war will do little to shut down Al Qaeda, which has shifted its operations to Pakistan. Dispatching 150,000 troops to build new schools, roads, mosques and water-treatment facilities around Kandahar is like trying to stop the drug war in Mexico by occupying Arkansas and building Baptist churches in Little Rock. “It’s all very cynical, politically,” says Marc Sageman, a former CIA case officer who has extensive experience in the region. “Afghanistan is not in our vital interest – there’s nothing for us there.”  …”

~Michael Hastings, The Runaway General

President Obama’s Statement on General McChrystal and Afghanistan

McChrystal’s ‘counter-terrorism’ without McChrystal

Michelle Malkin discusses challenges facing General David Petraeus

Rufus Wainwright – April Fools

Oh what a shame that your pockets did bleed on st. valentine’s
And you sat in a chair
Thinking “boy i’m such a prince!”
Well, life’s a train that goes from february on
Day by day
But it’s making a stop on april first

And you will believe in love
And all that it’s supposed to be
But just until the fish start to smell
And you’re struck down by a hammer

Sure, you were swift
When the handsome greek boys dropped by with gifts
You are suave
Thanks to ribbons that open sesame
But in the stars and closer to home, in every planet
It ain’t hard for me and dear jo jo to see

That you will believe in love
And all that it’s supposed to be
But just until the fish start to smell
And you’re struck down by a hammer

So let it all go by
Looking at the sky
Wondering if there’s clouds and stuff in hell

And you will believe in love
And all that it’s supposed to be
But just until the fish start to smell
And you’re struck down by a hammer

Col. Kurtz’s Anthropological Understanding

“We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”

~Windston Churchill

Fiona Apple :: Across The Universe

Pleasantville–Videos

 Background Articles and Videos

Obama Fires General McChrystal

The Pentagon’s New Map

General McChrystal Speech

General McChrystal Speech Part 2

General McChrystal Speech Part 3

General McChrystal Last Afghanistan Press Conference

A Sad Day

Thomas Sowell

“…This is, after all, an administration that waited for months last year before acting on General McChrystal’s urgent request for 40,000 more troops, which he warned would be necessary to prevent the failure of the mission in Afghanistan. He got 30,000 eventually– and a public statement by President Obama about when he wants to start withdrawing American troops from that country.

In no previous period of history has an American president announced a timetable for pulling out troops. They may have had a timetable in mind, but none of these presidents was irresponsible enough to tell the world– including our enemies– when our troops would be leaving.

Such information encourages our enemies, who know that they need only wait us out before they can take over, whether in Afghanistan or elsewhere. At the same time, it undermines our allies, who know that relying on the United States is dangerous in the long run, and that they had better make the best deal they can get with our enemies. …”

“…Some people see a parallel between McChrystal’s “resignation” and President Harry Truman’s firing of General Douglas MacArthur. No two situations are ever exactly the same, but some of the parallels are striking.

MacArthur was proud not only of his military victories but also of the fact that he won those victories with lower casualty rates among his troops than other generals had. But General MacArthur too was not always discreet in what he said, and also had reasons to have contempt for politicians, going all the way back to FDR, who cut the army’s budget in the 1930s, while Nazi Germany and imperial Japan were building up huge military machines that would kill many an American before it was all over.

If we are creating an environment where only political generals can survive, what will that mean for America’s ability to win military victories without massive casualty rates? Or to win military victories at all?”

http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2010/06/23/a_sad_day 

The Runaway General

By  Michael Hastings

Jun 22, 2010

“…From the start, McChrystal was determined to place his personal stamp on Afghanistan, to use it as a laboratory for a controversial military strategy known as counterinsurgency. COIN, as the theory is known, is the new gospel of the Pentagon brass, a doctrine that attempts to square the military’s preference for high-tech violence with the demands of fighting protracted wars in failed states. COIN calls for sending huge numbers of ground troops to not only destroy the enemy, but to live among the civilian population and slowly rebuild, or build from scratch, another nation’s government – a process that even its staunchest advocates admit requires years, if not decades, to achieve. The theory essentially rebrands the military, expanding its authority (and its funding) to encompass the diplomatic and political sides of warfare: Think the Green Berets as an armed Peace Corps. In 2006, after Gen. David Petraeus beta-tested the theory during his “surge” in Iraq, it quickly gained a hardcore following of think-tankers, journalists, military officers and civilian officials. Nicknamed “COINdinistas” for their cultish zeal, this influential cadre believed the doctrine would be the perfect solution for Afghanistan. All they needed was a general with enough charisma and political savvy to implement it. 

As McChrystal leaned on Obama to ramp up the war, he did it with the same fearlessness he used to track down terrorists in Iraq: Figure out how your enemy operates, be faster and more ruthless than everybody else, then take the fuckers out. After arriving in Afghanistan last June, the general conducted his own policy review, ordered up by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The now-infamous report was leaked to the press, and its conclusion was dire: If we didn’t send another 40,000 troops – swelling the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan by nearly half – we were in danger of “mission failure.” The White House was furious. McChrystal, they felt, was trying to bully Obama, opening him up to charges of being weak on national security unless he did what the general wanted. It was Obama versus the Pentagon, and the Pentagon was determined to kick the president’s ass. …” 

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236 

General McChrystal: the fall guy for the president’s failure?

By Con Coughlin

“…In time of war – particularly one as challenging as the brutal conflict currently being fought by Nato forces in Afghanistan – you would expect an American president to give the campaign his undivided attention. But the fact that Mr Obama could hardly be bothered to contact the commander of the most important military campaign of his presidency tells its own story.

If Mr Obama had devoted more time to working with senior commanders such as General McChrystal, he would have a more profound understanding of the enormous strains and pressures they endure. He might then have been inclined to take a more lenient approach to a magazine article that did little more than reflect the every day tittle-tattle that goes on in any officers’ mess. Gen McChrystal was clearly out of order, but after he issued a fulsome apology, a severe reprimand, rather than outright dismissal, would have sufficed.

But that is not this president’s style. Ever since he entered office seventeen months ago, Mr Obama has proved to be exceptionally thin-skinned when it comes to handling criticism, as revealed by his administration’s long-running feud with the Fox News network.

A president who actively encourages the relaxed “no drama Obama” image of his administration, and who heads for the nearest golf course whenever the opportunity presents itself, is prone to the most spectacular hissy-fits the moment he finds himself under pressure. And his over-the-top “kick ass” response to BP’s involvement in the Gulf oil spill has displayed to a wider audience the more truculent side of this president’s nature.

But it also reveals how Mr Obama’s laid-back approach has created a dangerous erosion of political authority at the White House. While Mr Obama is busy with his golf buggy, his senior advisers spend their time indulging in titanic power struggles over policy. So far as Afghanistan is concerned, this week it resulted in the dismissal of the man who had become synonymous with the success of the Nato effort. …”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/7854963/General-McChrystal-the-fall-guy-for-the-presidents-failure.html

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