Pentagon Worries Led to Command Change

McKiernan's Ouster Reflected New Realities in Afghanistan -- and Washington


By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 17, 2009


In mid-March, as a White House assessment of the war in Afghanistan was nearing completion, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met in a secure Pentagon room for their fortnightly video conference with Gen. David D. McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Kabul.

There was no formal agenda. McKiernan, a silver-haired former armor officer, began with a brief battlefield update. Then Gates and Mullen began asking about reconstruction and counternarcotics operations. To Mullen, they were straightforward, relevant queries, but he thought McKiernan fumbled them.

Gates and Mullen had been having doubts about McKiernan since the beginning of the year. They regarded him as too languid, too old-school and too removed from Washington. He lacked the charisma and political savvy that Gen. David H. Petraeus brought to the Iraq war.

McKiernan's answers that day were the tipping point for Mullen. Soon after, he discussed the matter with Gates, who had come to the same conclusion.

Mullen traveled to Kabul in April to confront McKiernan. The chairman hoped the commander would opt to save face and retire, but he refused. Not only had he not disobeyed orders, he believed he was doing what Gates and Mullen wanted.

You're going to have to fire me, he told Mullen.

...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/16/AR2009081602304.html?hpid=topnews

Petraeus and McKiernan supported direct talks with the Taliban to end the fighting (as does President Karzai).
http://muslimmedianetwork.com/mmn/?p=3144
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gEH8n7_6dU6KQrbVuEisi0fWSS9Q

IMHO, the military industrial complex (which controls the Pentagon) was having none of it. They want to continue the war in Afghanistan as long as possible. This is why McKiernan was sacked in favor of a special ops nutjob (McChrystal) who wants to bomb the snot out of villages. The article quoted above is Pentagon propaganda designed to smear McKiernan. I was shocked to find it posted on Democratic Underground.