Top U.S. General Calls for Strategy Change in Afghanistan
General Stanley McChrystal, the top-ranking U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, on Monday issued his highly anticipated report about the status of the conflict on that troubled front, and his assessment of the situation doesn’t fully help President Obama’s cause in ramping up America’s Afghan war effort since he took office. –KA
BBC:
Gen McChrystal’s blunt assessment will say that the Afghan people are undergoing a crisis of confidence because the war against the Taliban has not made their lives better, says BBC North America editor Mark Mardell.
The general says the aim should be for Afghan forces to take the lead – but their army will not be ready to do that for three years and it will take much longer for the police.
And he will warn that villages have to be taken from the Taliban and held, not merely taken.Responding to Gen McChrystal’s review, Afghanistan’s deputy minister of rural rehabilitation, Wais Barmak, said Afghans should have been consulted about military strategy from the start.