Kandahar Offensive Postponed Until Fall: McChrystal

Kandahar Offensive Postponed Until Fall: McChrystal :wtf:

The offensive planned for this summer to clear and hold Kandahar city will now be delayed until the fall, Afghan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal tells the Financial Times. The delay will give commanders time to evaluate what went wrong in Marja where a major offensive earlier this year failed to secure the area from Taliban insurgents.

Speaking to reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels today, McChrystal said operations in Kandahar would be “more deliberate” than initially planned: “I think it will take a number of months for this to play out. But I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I think it’s more important we get it right than we get it fast.”

McChrystal said there must be visible progress in southern Afghanistan by the end of the year, certainly before NATO’s annual summit in November. After nine years of war, he acknowledged that patience among Afghans, as well as NATO allies, is wearing very thin.

Assessing operations in the Helmand River Valley, he said the major lesson was that the Afghan governance piece, the “build” component of the “clear, hold and build” strategy, must be more robust.

I thought this comment from McChrystal on the difficulty of counterinsurgency was particularly telling:



unhappycamper comment: I have no fucking idea why McCrystal is still in the Army. But then again I have no fucking idea why Salazar, Geitner and Bernake are still there either.

The time when we could have 'built' our way through to success here is long passed.

I know, not likely.

"I wish to rule my own country and protect my own religion. If you will, send me a letter saying whether there is to be peace or war. I wish to fight with you. I like war, but you do not. God willing, I will take many rifles from you, but you will get no rifles or ammunition from me. I have no forts, no houses, no country. I have no cultivated fields, no silver, no gold for you to take. I have nothing. If the country were cultivated or contained houses or property, it would be worth your while to fight. The country is all rock, and that is of no use to you. If you want sand and stone, you can get them in plenty. There are also many ant-heaps. The sun is very hot. All you can get from me is war - nothing else. I have met your men in battle, and have killed them. We are greatly pleased at this. Our men who have fallen in battle have won paradise. God fights for us. We kill, and you kill. We fight by God's order. That is the truth. We ask for God's blessing. God is with me when I write this. If you wish for war, I am happy; and, if you wish for peace, I am content also. But if you wish for peace, go away from my country back to your own. If you wish for war, stay where you are. Hearken to my words. I wish to exchange a machine gun for ammunition. If you do not want it, I will sell it to some one else. Send me a letter saying whether you desire war or peace."

http://www.newsweek.com/2009/09/30/it-s-a-mad-mad-mad-mad-world.html

And Stan the Man is still waiting around for some visible progress, and sort of hoping that things will, you know, work out. Or something. In the next six months, naturally, because that when everything always happens. Six months from now. So, ask again in November. Or December. And Stan will say he needs just another . . . well, I don't want to give it away and spoil it for you.

This thread collected two recs last nite after I put it up, and was back down to zero recs when I went to bed 20 minutes later.

I can't believe Obama has this jerk McChrystal in charge.

in Pakistan last week

Its not only the resolve of the indigents, its the topological terrain.
On top of that, its the seemingly obligatory collusion with the druglords that shoots the occupying force in the foot every time.

You'd think... oh, I don't know... military strategists would have figured this out by now.