Q+A: New US commander takes charge in Afghanistan
June 15, 2009

By Peter Graff
Reuters

 

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, a veteran commander of top-secret special operations, takes charge of the nearly 90,000 U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan Monday. Here are some facts about the new commander.

WHAT IS MCCHRYSTAL'S BACKGROUND?

McChrystal has spent most of the past six years commanding JSOC, the U.S. military's Joint Special Operations Command, the most elite and secretive branch of its special forces, consisting of Army Delta Force and Navy Seal units tasked with hunting down "high value targets" in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His men are believed to have helped capture fugitive Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, kill both of Saddam's sons and kill Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Nevertheless, he says he understands the limits of targeted killings in fighting an insurgency.
"Since 9/11, I have watched as America tried to first put out this fire with a hammer, and it doesn't work," he told the Wall Street Journal this month. "Decapitation strategies don't work."
Asked if his background would make it difficult for him to run a culturally sensitive counter insurgency campaign, he told the Journal: "I don't think so, but it's a fair question."

WHAT FORCE WILL HE COMMAND?

McChrystal arrives midway through a massive build-up that will see the number of U.S. troops more than double from 32,000 at the end of 2008 to an anticipated 68,000 by the end of this year. He also commands about 30,000 troops from other NATO countries under the International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF).
A new post has been created for a subordinate, Lieutenant-General David Rodriguez, who will be placed in day-to-day command of the U.S. and NATO combat forces, freeing McChrystal to focus on strategy, diplomacy and efforts to train Afghan security forces.

WHY WAS HIS PREDECESSOR REPLACED?

A: U.S. officials have not fully explained what was wrong with McChrystal's predecessor, General David McKiernan, one of the military's most decorated commanders of ground forces. Most experts interpreted McKiernan's removal as a sign Washington was losing patience with conventional tactics that failed to quell mounting violence.
McKiernan had ordered changes aimed at reducing civilian deaths, which the United Nations says improved U.S. and NATO procedures and helped limit harm to ordinary Afghans. Nevertheless, his tenure in Afghan eyes is bracketed by two air strikes that killed large numbers of civilians -- one shortly after he arrived in 2008 and one last month, while U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was already en route to Afghanistan to relieve him of his command.