The Soothing Words of Stanley McChrystal Posted by Michael Cohen

One of the many things that I really enjoy about reading and watching the practically dozens of interviews done with America's top commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, is their unvarnished and optimistic nature. I always feel reassured when I hear him speak and there is never any sense that what he is saying masks a more nuanced and complicated reality on the ground.

For example, consider the General's soothing words to Diane Sawyer in an "exclusive" interview: 

"The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said he believes he is making good on his promise of a quantum shift on the battlefield. I believe we're doing that now. I believe that we have changed the way we operate in Afghanistan. We changed some of our structures and I believe that are on our way toward convincing the Afghan people that we are here to protect them.

"We've been at this for about seven months now and I believe we've made progress. It's not a completed mission yet," he said.

See, aren’t these words reassuring: don’t they make you feel like everything is going to be A-OK in Afghanistan. It’s almost like this stuff just never happened:

Ten civilians, including eight schoolchildren, were killed in an attack by Western forces in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai said Monday.

The second episode of civilian deaths within a week was under investigation Thursday by the Afghan government and NATO officials after reports that up to seven civilians had been killed in Helmand Province in a NATO missile strike.

Or this:

Hundreds of people, mostly students rallied in central Kabul and eastern Nangarhar provinces against the killing of civilians in foreign forces operations. 

Activists of youth branch of Jamiat Eslah (Afghan Society for Social Reform and Development) staged a demonstration in Kabul, condemning the airstrikes and demanded withdrawal of the troops. 

“If Afghan government did not stop civilian killing, it would lead to national upraising against foreigners,” chief of the youth branch Dr. Syed Khalid Rashid said. 

The demonstration was attended by hundreds of youths, including university students and professors of Kabul University. They passed a resolution asking ISAF soldiers to leave Afghanistan. 

See, don’t you feel better.

According to McChrystal things are even looking up in Helmand:

McChrystal cited as evidence a meeting he recently held in a river valley in Helmand province, an area where the Taliban has been strong and was one of the first targets of the American surge.

"When I sit in an area that the Taliban controlled only seven months ago and now you meet with a shura of elders and they describe with considerable optimism the future, you sense the tide is turning," he said.

Again, this is incredibly reassuring, because it’s not like there are next to no Afghan troops supporting US efforts in Helmand; or the Taliban appeared to have retreated from direct attacks against US troops or any of this is happening:

Only a few hundred American troops are policing the southern border of one of Afghanistan's major smuggling areas, leaving open a vast expanse of desert that the Taliban use to shuttle in weapons and fighters from Pakistan. 

This dusty hamlet 75 miles north of the border in Helmand province was the Taliban's key transit point from Pakistan before the Marines arrived in July. Since then, the Marines have set up a series of patrol bases east and west of Khan Neshin to disrupt the Taliban's supply lines. 

But the battalion deployed at only about 50 percent of its authorized strength, and one of its three companies is posted in central Helmand. That leaves several hundred Marines to cover roughly 6,000 square miles - an area larger than Connecticut. 

As a result, the Marines may have trouble curbing Taliban supply lines as thousands of fresh troops pour into the province as part of President Obama's surge. 

And over at Der Spiegel (in another installment of the McChrystal roadshow) come these words

SPIEGEL: Coming from your background in special forces, where targeting and killing people is actually the nature of the business, your tactical directive to avoid casualties which came out in July was quite a surprise. It says that killing the enemy is not effective and therefore needs to be avoided.

McChrystal: Well, the tactical directive was designed not just to give people specific guidelines, but to give them intent. That was to explain that killing the enemy was not the best route to success. If you kill two enemy fighters who are in somebody's house, and in doing so you destroy their house, then the individuals who own the house probably have very conflicted feelings about whether you did the right thing. If you take an action that has the risk of harming civilians, you have to carefully consider that decision, because you can't bring a civilian who has been killed back to life.

See these are precisely the words that make it easier for me sleep at night, comfortable in the knowledge that American troops are performing like armed social workers in Afghanistan and are focusing all of their energy on protecting civilians . . . and none of this is happening:

12/21: ““Militants Killed in Wardak, Detained in Helmand; Soldiers Complete Mine Training“

12/22: “Militants Killed, Detained in Kandahar, Wardak, Khowst; ISAF Casualty“

12/23: “Joint Force Captures Kabul Criminal Group; Militants Killed, Detained in Patkya, Zabul, Nangarhar; ISAF Casualty“

I'm telling you; this McChrystal fellow . .  he's got a real future.

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