McChrystal’s Report Could Change Obama’s Afghanistan Plan

The situation has changed significantly since President Obama took office last winter and fixed his focus on Afghanistan, and these changes—including a disputed Afghan presidential election and deadly spikes in insurgent violence—may spell trouble for Obama’s initial strategy in that country, according to an assessment issued by Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

Update: Read the Washington Post’s report about McChrystal’s warning of “mission failure” here.

The Washington Post:

From his headquarters in Kabul, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal sees one clear path to achieve President Obama’s core goal of preventing al-Qaeda from reestablishing havens in Afghanistan: “Success,” he writes in his assessment, “demands a comprehensive counterinsurgency campaign.”

Inside the White House, the way forward in Afghanistan is no longer so clear.

Although Obama endorsed a strategy document in March that called for “executing and resourcing an integrated civilian-military counterinsurgency strategy,” there have been significant changes in Afghanistan and Washington since then. A disputed presidential election, an erosion in support for the war effort among Democrats in Congress and the American public, and a sharp increase in U.S. casualties have prompted the president and his top advisers to reexamine their assumptions about the U.S. role in defeating the Taliban insurgency.

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U.S. Navy / MC1 Molly Burgess