McChrystal’s Afghanistan Chattiness Does Obama and the Nation a Disservice

Going public is the ONLY way to draw attention to what needs to be done. I applaud the General for standing up and speaking his mind after apparently being ignored by (our?) Commander-in-Chief. Indian name: "Blows with BIG Wind".

Ever since Vietnam we've made the mistake of fighting "political" wars instead of going in and kicking butt.

BIG mistake.

Seperating the Taliban from the Al-queda is simply naive. They are a common enemy with common goals. THEY have control of Afganistan because the people there FEAR them. The USA is reading "rights" to combatants before taking them into custody.

WOW...I'd be shaking in my towel.

Let the Generals do their job and then get out of there.

Letting some JR Senator make the call?

BIG mistake!

Chris Petty of GA 12:20AM October 09, 2009

KABUL – A suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle outside the Indian Embassy in the bustling center of the Afghan capital Thursday, killing 17 people in the second major attack in the city in less than a month. The Afghan Foreign Ministry hinted at Pakistani involvement — a charge Pakistan denied.

The blast occurred a day after the war entered its ninth year and as President Barack Obama was deliberating a request by the top commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal for up to 40,000 more troops. Opponents of a troop increase want to shift focus to missile strikes and special operations against al-Qaida-linked groups in Pakistan.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack — the second against the Indian Embassy in the past two years — and specified that the Indians were the target.

In New Delhi, India's Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said the driver of the sport utility vehicle "came up to the outer perimeter wall of the embassy in a car loaded with explosives." Three Indian paramilitary guards were wounded by shrapnel, Rao said.

Rao did not say who the Indians believed was responsible for the attack, which occurred about 8:30 a.m. along a commercial street that is also home to the Interior Ministry.

However, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said the Thursday attack "was planned and implemented from outside of Afghan borders" by the same groups responsible for the July 2008 suicide bombing at the Indian Embassy that killed more than 60 people.

The ministry statement made no mention of Pakistan. However, the Afghan government blamed Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence for the 2008 bombing at the Indian Embassy as well as involvement in a string of attacks in the country.

U.S. officials suspected the 2008 embassy bombing and other high profile attacks were carried out by followers of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a longtime Afghan militant leader whose forces are battling U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan from sanctuaries in the border area of Pakistan. At U.S. urging, the Pakistani military says it's planning an offensive against extremists in the border area.

In Islamabad, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Abdul Basit, condemned Thursday's bombing.

"Whenever terrorist activity occurs it should strengthen our resolve to eradicate and eliminate this menace," he said. Basit called allegations of a Pakistani role in the Kabul bombing "preposterous."

The Taliban did not say why it targeted the Indian Embassy. India and Pakistan, archrivals since the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent, are competing for influence in Afghanistan among rival ethnic groups. India maintains close ties with the Tajik community, and Pakistan with the Pashtuns, who form the majority of the Taliban.

Thursday's blast was the deadliest attack in Kabul since Sept. 17, when a suicide bomber killed 16 people, including six Italian soldiers and 10 Afghan civilians, on a road in the center of the capital.

The Interior Ministry said 15 civilians and two Afghan police officers were killed in Thursday's blast. At least 76 people were wounded, the ministry said. President Hamid Karzai, the U.S. Embassy and the United Nations mission all condemned the attack.

After months of relative calm, the Afghan capital has been shaken recently by an increasing number of suicide attacks and roadside bombings that began in the run-up to the country's disputed Aug. 20 election. The attacks usually target international military forces or government installations, but Afghan businesses and civilians are also often killed or injured.

Police sealed off the area after the blast.

The Indian news channel CNN-IBN cited Jayant Prasad, India's ambassador in Kabul, as saying the blast caused "extensive damage to the chancery." He said the bomb was so powerful that it blew off some of the embassy's doors and windows.

The explosion also damaged a line of shops between the embassy and the Interior Ministry, shattering glass and rattling buildings more than a mile (kilometer) away. A huge brown plume of smoke was visible in the air as ambulances raced to the scene and carried away the wounded.

A European police officer assigned as an adviser to the Interior Ministry and an Afghan interpreter were slightly wounded by flying glass, training spokesman Andrea Angeli said.

A 21-year-old Afghan man, who gave his name only as Najibullah, said he had just opened his shop when the explosion went off, knocking him unconscious. When he awoke, he said, he couldn't see anything because of dust and debris.

"Dust was everywhere. People were shouting," Najibullah said. "You couldn't see their faces because there was so much dust."

His white clothes were covered in blood after helping load four injured onto ambulances.

AP Television News footage showed local residents and soldiers pulling a charred, severed leg out of a destroyed vehicle. Others carried an apparently lifeless body on a stretcher to an ambulance.

On another stretcher, a man lay face down, one arm hanging downward, his left leg covered in blood.

Two United Nations vehicles were near the blast and one was badly damaged, spokesman Dan McNorton confirmed. Both vehicles had only a driver inside, and neither was wounded. The U.N. typically uses armored vehicles in Kabul that are designed to withstand such attacks.

One injured man said the force of the explosion threw him into the air. Mohammad Arif said he was leaving the embassy when the blast tossed him against a concrete barrier. The left side of his head was bleeding as he spoke.

Separately Thursday, French Defense Minister Herve Morin announced the death of a French marine killed in an IED attack on Sept. 4.

______

Associated Press Writers Todd Pitman and Heidi Vogt in Kabul, Nirmala George in New Delhi and Nahal Toosi in Islamabad contributed to this report.

You Are A Loser Obama of CA 12:38PM October 08, 2009

With regards to US involvement in Afghanistan, what Obama and McChrystal end up being is a positive wrong (Obama) and a negative right (McChrystal). Neither, alone or in combination, is righteous.

Candidate Obama -- the positive wrong -- got President Obama elected with the duplicitous switch-n-bait Iraq/Afghanistan 'off-mission'/'war of necessity' BS during the presidential campaign last year. Now President Obama is finding out how deep the Afghan reality hole is that Candidate Obama dug for him.

McChrystal -- the go-bigger negative right -- is only pursuing the no-win 'goals' Candidate Obama set in motion and President Obama authorized, and that's a MAJOR problem for President Obama. McChrystal's forte is counter-insurgency. As such he knows he has to watch his REAR (Obama) as well as front and flanks. While Afghanistan may turn out to be political life and death for President Obama, the same is REAL life and death right here and now for those under McChrystal's command. So hat's off to McChrystal for forcing President Obama to make leadership wee. And for all those snivelling about McChrystal supposedly going outside the chain of command -- including Mullen and Jones -- aim it up a rope.

And Karzai, what a self-serving crook. He's the main benefactor of Candidate Obama's promised 'war of necessity.' Now President Obama 'officially' knows it, that Karzai is corrupt, post 20 August 2009 -- and many IEDs later.

So now President Obama is looking for input from Congressional 'leaders.' Yeah, right. President Obama is groping for cover and a way forward that won't negatively affect his re-election. So now we the people are going to step up to the plate and lead us out of no-win Afghanistan. While that will be a relief for our non-leader-in-chief, fed-up democrats and republicans alike also will end up dumping the clown in 2012.

The bottom line in 2009 is that if the Afghans wanted a stable national government, a viable national army, and a righteous law-enforcing national police they would be well on their way to having such already. The fact that the Afghans could/would only field 600 of their regulars to meet up with 4,000 US Marines in Helmand should have been a wake up call to even the soundest sleepers. The Afghans themselves have to want 'stability' WAY more than we want it for them, for us to do more good than harm there. The jerk Soviets tried to lead the Afghans to 'stability', but couldn't make them drink. Now President Obama wants to lead the Afghans to 'stability', but neither he nor McChrystal also will be able to make them drink. It's a mountainous tribal thing: Me and my brother against my cousin -- and me, my brother, my father, my uncle, my father-in-law, AND my cousin against the foreign invaders. And at at any given time in Afghanistan, one or all of me, my brother, my father, my uncle, my father-in-law, and my cousin may have conflicting and shifting vested interests in the Taliban, Karzai, and/or the opium trade.

dom youngross 7:33PM October 07, 2009

GEN McChrystal has done his troops a great disservice, not by his assessment, but by making his assessment public. He made his speech in London on Oct. 1st and then we have 8 US soldiers dead 2 days later in one case fighting over 300 insurgents. Just a coincidence, I don't think so. GEN McChrystal's comments have been a rallying point for insurgents and the Taliban, they think they have the US on the ropes and they are wining the Battle. McChrystal's comments have been handed out on leaflets, and played up big time by the Arab media. McChrystal's attempt to get what he wants by public opinion pressure on the white house has added the enemy and I would guess has demoralized a fair portion of our armed forced serving in Afghanistan. Moral is priority off all leaders in the military, from a squad leader to a general. I don't disagree with McChrystal's assessment, but I see no winning in Afghanistan. What we would define as winning would take 10 more years of Nation Building in Afghanistan. The theory that Afghanistan is the only training ground for terrorist is so stupid. Hell, there could be Islamic terrorist right now training on the jungle gym at the park down the street from my home. Afghanistan is not worth one US life. I don't give a damn that under the Taliban women and others would loose rights and be under Sharia law, its their country, their culture. There was no poppy production under the Taliban, now there is so much opium coming out of Afghanistan that here in the US the street price has dropped by 70% for Heroin. The goal was to get Ben Laden and Al-Qaeda , not to prop up a corrupt government in Afghanistan.

Frank a Vet in CA of CA 7:13PM October 07, 2009