McChrystal Faces Massive Failure in Afghanistan in Next Few Months

[Jefferson23]

** If they wanted to change course, they could try and have about 1000 Greg Mortenson's...he has done more good than our military operations all these long painful years.


The Afghan population in the Taliban heartland is not cooperating with U.S. and NATO forces.

June 13, 2010 |

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal confronts the specter of a collapse of U.S. political support for the war in Afghanistan in coming months comparable to the one that occurred in the Iraq War in late 2006.

On Thursday, McChrystal's message that his strategy will weaken the Taliban in its heartland took its worst beating thus far, when he admitted that the planned offensive in Kandahar City and surrounding districts is being delayed until September at the earliest, because it does not have the support of the Kandahar population and leadership.

Equally damaging to the credibility of McChrystal's strategy was the Washington Post report published Thursday documenting in depth the failure of February's offensive in Marja.

The basic theme underlined in both stories - that the Afghan population in the Taliban heartland is not cooperating with U.S. and NATO forces - is likely to be repeated over and over again in media coverage in the coming months.


in full: http://www.alternet.org/story/147190/mcchrystal_faces_massive_failure_in_afghanistan_in_next_few_months/?page=entire

[Doctor_J]

1. Hard to believe that such a shrewd man as the president

decided to get on board with this clusterfuck. Who would have thought that the Afghanis don't want us taking over their country :eyes:?

[msongs]

3. not a student of history, evidently nt

[tekisui]

2. 53% of US say the war is not worth fighting. 39% know we are losing

42 percent believe we are winning.

The worm has finally turned. The people are no longer in support of this war. Obama had a little cushion of support with his new administration. Repukes made up the bulk of public support. Democrats and liberals never saw a majority supporting the Afghanistan/Pakistan escalation.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. That would explain why we suddenly found all those resources??

[Doctor_J]

5. Outstanding point

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4425487

Although this ruse will turn out to be a complete FAIL

[KansDem]

6. Every war since Korea has been a "massive failure" for the US

But we keep fighting them...:shrug:

[Hawkowl]

7. McChrystal = Westmoreland

Apparently Obama isn't the only one who hasn't studied even recent history.

[classysassy]

10. Past and recent history

seem to have been put on hold,until we can rape another country of its resources in order to further enrich our evil super rich cowards.

[seafan]

8. McChrystal faces 'Iraq' moment in Afghanistan

That this is reported by Gareth Porter is reason to pay close attention.


McChrystal faces 'Iraq' moment

June 14, 2010
Asia Times

WASHINGTON - General Stanley McChrystal confronts the specter of a collapse of United States political support for the war in Afghanistan in coming months comparable to the one that occurred in the Iraq War in late 2006.

.....

The Kandahar operation, which McChrystal's staff has touted as the pivotal campaign of the war, had previously been announced as beginning in June. But it is now clear that McChrystal has understood for weeks that the most basic premise of the operation turned out to be false.
"When you go to protect people, the people have to want you to protect them," said McChrystal, who was in London for a NATO conference. He didn't have to spell out the obvious implication: the people of Kandahar don't want the protection of foreign troops.

.....

The report in the Post, written by National Editor Rajiv Chandrasekaran, provided the first detailed evidence of the systematic non-cooperation of the population of the district-sized area called Marjah with US troops.

Chandrasekaran reported that female US Marines tried to get Afghan women to come to a meeting last week, but that not a single woman showed up. And despite a NATO offer to hire as many as 10,000 residents for labor projects on irrigation projects, only about 1,200 have signed up.
The US officials in Marjah are trying to convince local residents, in effect, that they should trust the foreign troops to protect them from the Taliban, but the Taliban are still able to threaten to punish those who collaborate with occupation forces.

About a dozen people have been killed for such collaboration already, and many more have been warned to stop, according to Chandrasekaran's report.
"You can't get beyond security when you talk to people," a civilian official working on development told the Post editor. "They don't want to entertain discussions about projects."

.....

McChrystal and Petraeus don't understand why the Afghanis would refuse to work with the US, when they are attacked and murdered for doing so.

Why these two Bush hacks have not been removed from their jobs is an abomination.

.....

Despite news media before and during the offensive referring to Marjah as a "city of 80,000", it was an agricultural area whose population of about 35,000 was spread over some 120 square kilometers, based on the fewer than 50 dwellings shown on the Google Earth map of a 1.2 kilometer segment of the area.

That means the 15,000 NATO and Afghan troops provide a ratio of one occupying soldier for every two members of the population. Counter-insurgency doctrine normally calls for one soldier for every 50 people in the target area.

The fact that the US-NATO forces could not clear the Taliban from Marjah despite such an unusually heavy concentration of troops is devastating evidence that the McChrystal strategy has failed.

Throughout 2009, media coverage of the war was focused on plans for a new offensive strategy that promised to turn the war around. But Thursday's double dose of bad news suggests a cascade of media reports to come that will reinforce the conclusion that the war is futile.

That in turn could lead to what might be an "Iraq 2006 moment" - the swift unraveling of political support for the war on the part of the elected and unelected political elite, as occurred in the Iraq War in the second half of 2006. The collapse of elite political support for the Iraq War followed months of coverage of sectarian violence showing the US military had lost control of the war.

McChrystal is still hoping, however, to be given much more time to change the attitudes of the population in Helmand and Kandahar.

.....

McChrystal and his boss, Central Command chief General David Petraeus, may now be counting on pressure from the Republican Party to force President Barack Obama to reverse his present position that the withdrawal of US troops will begin next year.

.....

(bold type added)



So now, McChrystal and Petraeus are down to their last weapon, aimed at ensuring that perpetual wars will extend into infinity.

An all-out offensive from their collaborators in the Republican Party against the president and the American people.


War is all these people know.





Seymour Hersh: Army is “in a war against the White House — and they feel they have Obama boxed in.”, October 14, 2009


'Still a long way to go' for U.S. operation in Marja, Afghanistan, WP, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, June 10, 2010

[Jefferson23]

12. Great addition, thank you!

[katty]

9. McChrystal: no crystal ball here-his Viet Nam lost moment

[Crowman1979]

11. McChrystal was a god damn liar to begin with!

Lying about Pat Tillman's cause of death to his own family is just absolutely Disgraceful and worthy of some time in the stockade IMO. Oh, and let's not forget his other project earlier in Iraq called Task Force 6-26:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/international/middleeast/19abuse.html?ei=5088&en=e8755a4b031b64a1&ex=1300424400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

Or this quote:

"I would anticipate that the major combat engagements are over," Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/04/14/sprj.irq.pentagon/

With military leaders like this, who the hell would want to enlist?

[pundaint]

13. we can't afford stupidity on this scale anymore

[FlyByNight]

14. Just a few more decades...

...and the Afghans will finally be "pacified". We've got 'em right where they want us.

:sarcasm:

[Moostache]

15. We are not going anywhere and not getting anything we were promised...

We're not leaving...not while there is so much as a nickel of additional profit potential to be sucked out of the region. And Afghanistan has TRILLIONS of $$$ worth of mineral deposits? Ha...we'll be there as long as the corporate overlords of this nation desire it and not one second less...

For all the talk and protest and bluster and campaigning on ending the war in Iraq, at last check, we are STILL THERE TOO!
Likewise, the national stain that is the Gitmo detenton center and the CIA Black sites are STILL OPERATIONAL TOO!

Obama is trending wildly towards a one-term failure not because of what he has actually done, but because of what he COULD HAVE DONE, SHOULD HAVE DONE and yet did not, would not, or (most likely) will not do because of the political campaign donation ramifications. His corporate masters came over and made damn sure he called them "Daddy" and gave them what they wanted - from climate change to industrial regulations to CEO pay to banking control...they got it all.

Obama has sold us out just as surely as McCain would have sold us out. He may have been more sly about it, but the end results are the same...corporations rule this nation and if you are not their bitch, you are not getting into office and if somehow you DO get elected, you will be forced to do their bidding in short order through bribery, coercion - up to and including death threats, or down right execution/assassination.

The history is clear - you either play ball willingly (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush I, Bush II - ensuring a fawning press review and rewriting of even the most colossal blunders and policy gaffes), die at the end of a gun (Kennedy), resign and go away in disgrace (LBJ), face the death of your political career and go away in disgrace (Carter - but live to be anything outside of politics, although history will be more kind to his time in office and vision for the future than his contemporary Americans) or sell-out and make a mockery of progressive causes (Clinton, Obama - getting in on the riches and the donations in exchange for watered down, unrecognizable trash legislation that ultimately will do more harm than good).

If Dr. Dean will not run against Obama in '12, then we need to find a good primary challenger who WILL...anyone...but there needs to be an internal revolt on the left that is as loud and as vocal as the Tea Party on the right. Almost everyone knows the Tea Party is crazy and could not be a basis for government, but they have successfully driven the mainstream right waaaaaaaaaaaaay further to the right than they would go on their own. A leftist revolution that pushes the Democrats at least back to left-of center instead of occupying the space once held by Republicans in the 1960's is an absolute moral imperative!