Afghanistan Mission Creep Watch Posted by Michael Cohen

In today's edition of AMCW we head across the ocean to this article from the UK's Telegraph and quotes from Gen. McCrystal and British Defense Secretary, Bob Ainsworth.

General McCrystal:

General McChrystal has recently ordered his forces to reduce aerial bombing, in an attempt to gain support of the local population. Arguing that the additional risks to soldiers were a price worth paying, General McChrystal believes that if civilians began to support the Taliban, it would make the war unwinnable.

"In the long run it is more economical in terms of loss of life to operate this way because we can gain the support of the population," he said.  General McChrystal, who took over as commander of Nato's International Security Assistance Force last month, said: "We want to protect the lives of civilians, but I believe that risks we accept now save coalition soldiers in the long run. If you create antipathy in the population, you are going to create more insurgents." 

Bob Ainsworth:

“Let us be under no illusion. The situation in Afghanistan is serious – and not yet decided. The way forward is hard and dangerous. More lives will be lost and our resolve is going to be tested," he said.

“If we are to succeed we will need both the courage and the patience to see it through. There is no defined end date – only an end state.”

Now on the surface there is nothing necessarily wrong with these words - well besides the fact that they reflect a misguided mission and that the unstated "end state" probably is somewhat out of reach. But the real problem is that McCrystal and Ainsworth are clearly operating on a mission that has a fairly long trajectory: and considering the lack of host country support for a counter-insurgency mission, one that will likely continue to have an American face.

Is it possible to read the words above and come to the conclusion that the United States will be out of Afghanistan in 18-24 months? And frankly, if the mission is as, McCrystal and Ainsworth describe; would that make any sense? If we only intend to be in Afghanistan for say, two years, does anyone think that we would be carrying out a mission that focuses more on protecting the population than it does killing Taliban?

So what we have here is either a very long, bloody and expensive mission in Afghanistan or a pretty significant mismatch between tactics and objectives? I'm guessing the former and if that's the case, shouldn't that be something the President mentions to the American people?

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So what we have here is either a very long, bloody and expensive mission in Afghanistan or a pretty significant mismatch between tactics and objectives? I'm guessing the former and if that's the case, shouldn't that be something the President mentions to the American people?
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