When all you have is big fucking rock, everything looks like a small fucking rock

....Or a bigger rock. Despite the timing, this is more than replacing deck stewards on the Titanic. Rather, it signals a totally different approach, more in line with traditional counter-insurgency than what we've been doing there. Instead of a hold, bomb and artillery sort of war, the AXE suspects that the goal is to beat the Afghan insurgents at their own game. Special Operations forces using high tech commo, logistics and weaponry up close and personal have an inherent advantage, obviously but also face some real challenges. Getting the fuck out in that terrain by air is going to be tough. But, it's already tough. And, what we're  doing isn't working.

The change comes as President Obama's administration prepares to send thousands of extra troops to Afghanistan, and amid pressure on international forces to reduce the numbers of civilians killed by coalition air strikes. With plans announced for a phased pullout of US troops from Iraq, Afghanistan was recently confirmed as the primary focus of US military operations. The US is sending 21,000 additional troops to the country, to join an existing force of 38,000.However, the new strategy is expected to pair non-military methods and reconstruction with a stronger armed force on the ground.

But relations with President Hamid Karzai's Afghan government have been strained by a recent air strike which some Afghan officials say killed as many as 150 people.

Well, General Petraeus may not appear in the light of this sorta-nova, but the fact is he signaled that something was changing when he said that tactical action should not undermine strategic goals. I'm guessing that this is the first time he's had civilian bosses besides Gates who understand that. McKiernan has been calling the war in Afghanistan a "stalemate" for a long time; this move, while tough on the guy, is probably for the best. He was brutally honest, and sometimes you pay for that. Doesn't mean you're a bad guy, or even wrong; just in the way. I'm hard pressed to feel too bad for a Four Star General -- he's got one helluva golden parachute.

Supposedly, McKiernan was found liable for the disaster surrounding the Pat Tillman fratricide cover-up. If the focus switches to special ops and small unit actions, then putting an Operator like McCrystal in charge makes sense. It'll get bloody, but will probably work. Depending, of course, on the patience of the American people, and what those illusive strategic goals.

Comments

[Jack]

Axe, actually it was McCrystal that got critizied for the Tillman fratricide, at least for being the overall commander... here is the bad and the good on McCrystal from wikipediai:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_A._McChrystal

McChrystal's Zarqawi unit, Task Force 6-26, became notorious for its interrogation methods, particularly at Camp Nama, where it was accused of abusing detainees. After the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal became public in April 2004, 34 members of the task force were disciplined; five Army Rangers were ultimately convicted of prisoner abuse at Camp Nama.[7][8]

McChrystal was also criticized for his role in the aftermath of the 2004 death by friendly fire of Ranger and former professional football player Pat Tillman. The day after approving a posthumous Silver Star citation for Tillman that included the phrase "in the line of devastating enemy fire," McChrystal sent an urgent memo warning senior government officials not to quote the citation in public speeches because it "might cause public embarrassment" if Tillman had in fact been killed by friendly fire, as McChrystal suspected. McChrystal was one of eight officers recommended for discipline by a subsequent Pentagon investigation but the Army declined to take action against him.[9][10]

According to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, beginning in late spring 2007 JSOC and U.S. intelligence agencies launched a new series of highly effective covert operations that coincided with the Iraq War troop surge of 2007. Woodward reported that McChrystal employed "collaborative warfare" to integrate a range of tools from signal intercepts to human intelligence to find, target, and kill insurgents. Woodward's sources claimed that it was JSOC, not the much-touted surge, that was responsible for the drop in violence in 2007–2008. Asked for comment, President Bush said simply, "JSOC is awesome."[11]

Overall tho, I agree with you. McKiernan is an armor officer, not a snakeater like McCrystal, and COIN is what we need to do in Afghanistan. I also cant help but think McKiernan is being sacrificed to make up to the Afghans for the recent civilian colateral damage. Even tho so far this year civilian casualties are down 40% over the same time last year, the Afghans are now ultrasensitive to it. McKiernan is a good man in a bad spot, speaking truth to power and getting screwed for it.. Just as Rumsfeld screwed him before during the Iraq invasion when McKiernan argued for using far more troops on the ground. (got exiled to FORSCOM) ie:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_D._McKiernan

In their book, Cobra II, military historians Michael Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor suggest that McKiernan was unhappy to hear of the cancellation of the deployment of the 1st Cavalry Division, a 17,000-soldier force that was scheduled to arrive in Iraq as a follow-on reinforcement. Its deployment was cancelled on April 21, 2003 after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld raised the issue of whether it was needed. Previously, shortly before the war, McKiernen won Pentagon approval for a new war plan that increased the number of ground troops, calling the new war plan COBRA II.

During Operation Iraqi Freedom, he had a different view of the battlefield than his superior, General Tommy Franks.[4] McKiernan saw the Saddam Fedayeen fighters as a major threat and one of the "centers of gravity" in Iraq, while Franks dismissed the importance of the irregulars.[4] The military was also surprised when McKiernan and his staff were not given command for post-war operations in Iraq, which instead went to V Corps and the newly-promoted Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez.[4]

But, as you say, a 4 star has one hell of a golden parachute, and as soldiers we play our role as ordered, McKiernan just got ordered to be the fall guy..

[Crusader AXE]

Yeah, fall guy is right. Snake eaters tend drink their own kool-aid. Possibility is that he volunteered to be the fall guy; slamming your head against the wall for a year or so has to frustrate somebody. The change in operational approach is going to be interesting. I'm not confident...hey, the Brits and Yanks, and the Canadians and everyone else in the coalition, are a lot better than the Afghans, man for man. However, this is their terrain, and we're facing the same terrain that beat the Brits, the Russians, the Moguls and everybody else who decided to try and fight through it.

[oldfatherwilliam]

If the rightist militias and such weren't such pussies they could be advancing on Denver and Spokane. Terrain rules. And oh yeah, Missoula and Salt Lake.

[Crusader/AXE]

I wonder if we gave them Salt Lake, would they stay there?