In an interview with 60 Minutes, US General leading Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal has spoken with Obama only once in the last 70 days. That's just mind boggling to know that the war Obama "wants" to win hasn't found more time to speak with him. Most supporters of Obama will say that McChrystal speaks with Defense Secretary Gates, who relays them on to Obama to get reports. However, wouldn't it seem logical to talk to your field general first hand? This being Obama's personal pick to lead the Afghanistan fight. So this is his guy! In comparison, in the Bush Administration, VP Cheney spoke with his field commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan every other day.
On another note, McChrystal says that we need another 40K troops for a counter-insurgency strategy that will be needed to win this war. Without these extra troops, McChrystal says we cannot win and will continue shedding more blood. McChrystal asked for these extra troops on August 30th. The President has still not responded. And here we are on September 29th. Unfortunately, this is more of a political issue for Obama.
Proof #1- The left base of his party does not want more troops in Afghanistan no matter what. They would rather either go home, or only send special forces and drones in to try to kill the bad guys. If Obama allowed an additional 40K troops, this would tick off his political base.
Proof #2- Obama gave Afghanistan speeches on Jan 22, Jan 27, and two more in March saying our country will deploy a new counter-insurgency strategy. We did add 20K troops at the time. He was adament in saying this was the way to go.
Two final things- McChrystal is known as the country's expert on sending special forces and drones to kill in the dangerous areas. He is the one who ordered these in Iraq before our successful counter-insurgency strategy. Finally, wasn't it Obama who said a counter-insurgency strategy in Iraq would not work? Well, he is basically capitulating with this same strategy in Afghanistan.
Will history repeat itself?
