This is the Time magazine take on the situation:
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www.news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599189755500
There are lots of other articles out there concerning the firing & replacement action.
Basically Dave McKiernan ( a tanker) got fired after 11 months . He is being replaced by a two man team made up of Stanley McChrystal ( SF background ) and David Rodriguez ( former 82nd CG).
Some sources blame Obama for the firing.
I wonder what people here think?
Given the backgrounds of both McKiernan and McChrystal I’d tend to favor the move. Sounds like a step in the right direction to me.
It takes an SF man to command SF men.
Seems that way to me , too.
There’s a new US Ambasssdor in Kabul as well.
Karl Eikenberry has 2 military tours in country , but this is his first time in a State Dept job there (AFAIK , anyway).
Type in: Karl Eikenberry.
The New York Times described the choice of a career Army guy for the job as “highly unusual”.
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Anyone else?
It seems like a good move by Obama to me. They apparently want to get on offense in Afghanistan (and maybe Pakistan too) and the SF general is more likely to be effective in that role. His background seems more suited to the rapid deployment of troops into hot spots and then chasing the enemy instead of occupying turf. Hopefully, it works out well and we can finally get Bin Laden’s crew and/or get the Taliban back on their heels.
Anyone find the timing odd; I mean with the shooting incident in Iraq?
I think that this has been brewing for a while.
Among other factors-- the SecDef is a carry-over , not a noob appointment.
FWIW, they should have appointed an unconventional commander from the beginning. The war probably would be winding down by now. The ability to think outside the box is still an alien concept to the Big Army. Conventional commanders fail every time in the UW arena.
Belated update.
McKiernan retired on 15 July , at Ft Myer , Va.
www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=55135
At first I thought the photo had to have been switched by accident. Quite a change in a short time.
Gates is known for backing up subordinates who perform to his expectations and cutting loose those who don’t, without mercy. Good trait in the big leagues.
Eikenberry was my BN commander a long time ago. He came to use from being a attachee at the embassy in China.
In 2004 we puc’ed a guy that turned out to be political. He was released by Karzi eventualy, but not before we had spent 4 days blowing up 4 MTV’s (doing turns)worth of small arms rounds and rockets. If I recall we did three shots a day for those four days. left a crater big enough to park a truck in and broke most of the windows on the platue
Then LTG Eikenberry, I believe, was one of the big players in the release. Appertently he had been at this guys house and shown all the ammo and weapons that were to be turned into the ANA for reuse. The weapons, to include a in the cosmoline M-82 Barratt, were turned over. Sadly the ammo was all gone. Perhaps a intell goof. The guy had been a mudj during the Afghan war. We had several hundred protesters show up and all the tribal elders to request his release. Finaly like I said the ANA and ANP showed up to collect their equipment and we returned to Gazni.
Anyhow Karl has most likely drunk more chai at the highest levels of Afghanistan then ANYONE at the GO level in the Army and most likely State. He has been in Afghanistan for a LONG time. and is very politicaly adept.
http://www.nato.int/cv/dmilcom/eikenberry.html
and a little about how he thought the war was going in 2007
http://armedservices.house.gov/pdfs/FC_Afghan021307/Eikenberry_Testimony021307.pdf
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Sounds like a very good match for the job.
Michael Yon is back in Afghanistan.
Mike Yon has spent more time embedded with US & Allied units than any other journalist in the world.
McKiernan had a history at Fort Hood . He also had some very powerful and influencial people running interference for him in a variety of ways. Here’s a Time magazine puff piece by Wesley K. Clark from last spring.
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www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1894410_1893847_1894214,00.html
The point is that people who are unwilling or unable to adapt in functional ways can be fired and need to be fired. Three stripes or three stars , everybody can be fired by somebody.
Mike Yon is still alive and dispatches are flowing.
Michael Yon has been called the Ernie Pyle of Greatest Generation II . He’s been run out of of a few places by people who have something to hide.
Big Army is the problem in Afghanistan. The more Big Army guys we can get out of there the better.
If it were me, I would OPCON the entire operation to the CJSOTF(A). Of course, 2 star and 3 star generals will never subordinate themselves to an O-6 GRP CDR. And, because of this, we are doomed to loose this war.
When SF operators have to ask permission to operate in some conventional CPT’s ‘battlespace’ you know we are fucked.
While this change of leadership is a step in the right direction, it really just amounts to changing the drapes in a condemned building.
We need a phase shift in thinking in the AFPAK region that turns that particular war into a true UW campaign.
We’re going to “loose” this war… huh. I guess you learn something new every day.
Questions…
What makes you think we will ‘win’ this war?
Define ‘win.’
What is the Mission End State in Afghanistan?
In what year will this happen?
Thanks.
We’ll see how this develops – over time. I dunno if Bing West has wieghed in on the new developments in Afghanistan or not. He and Yon seemed to have made some pretty good calls in Iraq a few years ago.