understand that we have a clear and focused goal, to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al qaeda in pakistan and afghanistan and to prevent their return to either country in the future. that is a cause that could not be more just. a just cause, complete with a new strategy and a new commander, general stanley mcchrystal. he didn t talk in that mission statement much about if afghanistan is unstable and ungovernable but al qaeda is gone, is that good enough? is that success? so it became an implied requirement that says you ve got to create a sovereign afghanistan which can defend its own borders, which can prevent the re-emergence of an al qaeda safe haven inside. mcchrystal s predecessor, general david mckiernan, had
been sacked by president obama s defense secretary robert gates. we have a new strategy, a new mission, and a new ambassador. i believe that new military leadership also is needed. mckiernan, shortly before he had been fired, had been visited by secretary gates in afghanistan, and mckiernan spread the word to other senior officers he said, well, it looks like we maybe have done too good of a job telling people how bad things are over here. 2009 is going to be a tough year. there are the baseline problems of poverty and literacy and violence. that s not going to turn around quickly. so whether gates intended it or not, there was a very clear message sent out to other senior officers, which was, we don t want you to be pessimistic in public. secretary gates tells me, go
counterinsurgency doesn t work or nation building doesn t work. actually, i disagree. we did counterinsurgency in world war ii. we just did it after the armistice. that s what the marshall plan was. it was building nations that would be durable and resilient against the threat of communism. i think in rural afghanistan, which is most of afghanistan, it has not worked. and generally speaking, dissatisfaction with the government was a greater factor than fear of the taliban. they might dispense harsh justice, but they dispensed justice. the u.s. counterinsurgency strategy in afghanistan failed according to general mckiernan. and we now know there were many who saw it failing as a strategy in real-time. as one member of general stanley mcchrystal s afghanistan assessment team told government investigators, implementing an
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the mission there and he s talking about potentially changing the rules of engagement. the rules of engagement have a lot to do with civilian deaths and this report talks a lot about civilians that have been killed over there, more than has been reported in the past. could the timing of this report be someone against the war who wants to mar the reputation of general petraeus who changes the rules of engagement. that s a good point. wicky leaks is flat out against the war. if this makes us look good, they would have held on to it and to your point, general mcchrystal was somebody unlike general mckiernan, general mcchrystal was so concerned about soldier deaths that the reins were being loosened on them. they have this special task force who go out and hunt down bad guys without giving them trial. i was really hoping in war to be able to try some of the people that are killing our guys. of course