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Q&A with Stan McChrystal
Who wants to watch me run my cakehole on Charlie Rose when you can hear it from McChrystal instead?
You have said that in Afghanistan protecting the population is the top priority. What does that mean you stop doing?
It means we put as much of our effort as we can to establish security for the population and we stay there so those other critical parts, governance and development, can happen. Obviously everything comes at a cost. So it means we don't have as many forces to maneuver in the country. So we have to rigorously prioritize and then some things come later.
Is the lonely fire base in the mountains fighting Taliban a thing of the past? Are you pulling out to get . . .
In some cases it might be -- in some cases. Some it might not be. If the population is in the valley, sometimes putting the small fire base in the mountains accomplished the ability to accomplish security for the population. What I don't think you will see as much of is big unit sweeps or operations where you sweep them, then come out. Historically it doesn't work, but almost every counterinsurgency tries it and relearns the lesson.
Has anyone ever live-blogged
Has anyone ever live-blogged an Exum-on-TV moment? Now, thanks to Jim Beam, they have.
I wish McChrystal would add
I wish McChrystal would add content to his interviews.
"If the population is in the valley, sometimes putting the small fire base in the mountains accomplished the ability to accomplish security for the population."
When did that ever happen?
"What I don't think you will see as much of is big unit sweeps or operations where you sweep them, then come out."
Did he know about the two concurrent major sweeps of Helmand? The big push to retake Sabari? The sweep into Alasay? TF Spartan basically retaking Ghazni from the Poles? I mean, big unit sweeps are still happening all the time.
I guess what I'm saying is, he's *almost* moving beyond mouthing preferred outcomes and actually discussing methods and strategy. I just want more: what's the plan? How will this plan be different from all the similarly-worded and implemented plans that hadn't worked? Why will this work now, and how will it address the unique cultural and social environment of Afghanistan?
None of that sort of basic diligence is in evidence in McChrystal's big ideas.
Out of interest, how many
Out of interest, how many civilians are being killed by the Taleban per day/week/month/etc?
How many civilians are being
How many civilians are being killing by the Taliban?
This spring I asked DComd ISAF if his figures showing numbers of civilians killed by the "Taliban" included PSCs, para-militaries, spies and armed guards working for NATO. He said yes but he couldn't say how many of the civilians killed by the Taliban were these types of people. I don't think NATO knows how many "innocent" civilians the insurgents have killed. My guess is that NATO and the Taliban have killed about equal numbers of innocent civilians with about equal levels of intention.
I'd say the priorities in
I'd say the priorities in Afghanistan were
1) force protection
2) careers
3) comfort
4) contracts
5) the big push
6) building mega bases
7) going to meetings
8) improving internet service
9) VIP and cheer leader visits
10) making COIN reading lists
M Shannon Thanks for the
M Shannon
Thanks for the info. Two questions:
Can you link to anything that substantiates this?
Does this imply that ISAF could practice an effective population-centric counterinsurgency strategy by disappearing in a puff of smoke?
VIM: It was in a public
VIM: It was in a public forum at ISAF HQ with the press invited but I haven't seen in included in any stories. There was a lot of talk of CAS, FACs and interdiction etc and I think much of it was lost on the journalists.
I think it implies that if NATO doesn't scale back their use of air power (the primary cause of death of civilians at the hands of NATO) and the Taliban follow through on their stated goals of reducing civilian casualties you could get to a situation where NATO is a greater threat to most Afghans than the Taliban.
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