Deck Chairs Rearranged
McKiernan’s out, McChrystal’s in command in Afghanistan. Small Wars Journal rounds up the news, which touches on the themes that conventional is out, spec ops in, McKiernan is scapegoated, McKiernan was “overly cautious,” and “fresh eyes” are needed, Zarqawi kill team leader is the guy, all without much in the way of telling detail. Some observations follow:
Abu Muqawama, who served under McChrystal in both Iraq and Afghanistan and appears to have been in the outer edges of the loop:
This tells me that President Obama, Secretary Gates, and Gen. Petraeus are as serious as a heart attack about a shift in strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This was ruthless, and they were not about to do the George Casey thing whereby a commander is left in the theater long after he is considered to have grown ineffective.
Captain’s Journal casts a jaundiced eye on claims it was McKiernan’s conventional thinking vs. McChrystal’s spec ops attitude, and remarks on several other disconnects in Afghan strategy and tactics.
Yon doesn’t have much of a opinion at this point, thinks both guys have good reps, but thinks special ops could do better media.
Fred Kaplan at Slate calls it “a very big deal” that makes it “Obama’s war.”
Ricks at Foreign Policy, who theoretically knows the right people well enough to know or find out pretty soon, didn’t know as of last report but says:
This reminds me of how Gen. Casey got fired as the commander in Iraq. I think Petraeus and Gates are behind this, and the message is: Bigger changes are coming in the war than you think.
OK, so it isn’t the deck chairs they rearranged. It’s who gets to sit in the big captain’s chair in the bridge. It’s a shakeup that appears to come with a very different kind of experience and focus. So does it keep the ship afloat, get it underway again? Small Wars Journal adds a big discussion roundup.
Topics: Afghanistan,military
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:27 am Comments (1) on Tuesday, May 12, 2009
One Response to “Deck Chairs Rearranged”
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May 12th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
This is just a small person’s opinion, without benefit of war experience: But it seems that if Petraeus et al are behind the scenes, things are going to get ugly in Afghanistan (for the enemy), and that we might finally lance that boil in Central Asia. It remains to be seen if this will promote a healing of the body politic in the Middle East. Perhaps that won’t really happen until there’s a 21st centuryl reformation of politics and religion in the birthplace of Islam, and surrounding regions.