Patterico's Pontifications

6/25/2010

Turning Things Around in Afghanistan

Filed under: War — DRJ @ 5:01 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Michael Yon is pleased to see General Petraeus take command in Afghanistan:

“Yon often writes about his private email communications with the former Iraq commander, the most recent of which was to congratulate him on being nominated to command Nato forces in Afghanistan. Afterwards, he posted this on his Facebook page to his 35,182 fans, many of whom serve in the US military:

Just got a nice response from General Petraeus.

This is going to be a long, long journey for the troops, for the General, and for me. Let’s turn this around!”

Will Yon be embedding now that McChrystal is out and Petraeus is in? It wounds sounds like it.

Speaking of changes, Petraeus may already be considering changes to the Afghanistan Rules of Engagement:

“Gen. David Petraeus is expected to modify the controversial rules of engagement aimed at preventing civilian casualties when he takes over as top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Fox News Channel reported Friday, citing a military source close to Petraeus.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who resigned this week after his disparaging comments about Obama administration officials were revealed in a Rolling Stone article, implemented strict guidelines that restricted the use of air power and heavy weaponry in populated areas.

Figures suggest civilian casualties have declined since the guidelines went into effect, but troops on the ground and some military commanders have said the rules have handicapped military efforts, according to Fox News Channel.”

This may be more wishful thinking than definite, but some tweaking is to be expected when a new commander takes charge. Nevertheless, there is more support for changes to the ROE among the American military than the Afghan leadership. So will Petraeus opt for a middle ground, more of the same, or a new way?

— DRJ

7 Responses to “Turning Things Around in Afghanistan”

  1. new ROE:

    kill anyone who shoots at you.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  2. As in Iraq, most of the civilian casualties are caused by the enemy, but you wouldn’t necessarily know that from our friendly media. Strategy Page has a worthwhile take on this.

    daleyrocks (1d0d98)

  3. one knows the lefts head are exploding, their peace love and happiness anti-american and suicide of american soldiers thru obamas RoE isnt going to fair well those leftists cowards.

    Bostinks2 (9e7db6)

  4. It wounds like it.

    Glad I’m not the only one whose fingers are too fast for them tonight.

    kishnevi (827a72)

  5. I think Petraeus is great.

    I think Obama has real thin skin… plus, everyone knows Joe Biden is a doofus.

    You call McChrystal on the phone and tell him to apologize to office of the C in C, and if he wants to bitch from now on, here’s my number.
    Otherwise STFU.

    It is good to tolerate some “insubordination”. high achievers always think they are smarter than the boss and usually, they are smarter… in their field… which is why we hired them.
    Don’t tolerate disloyalty, but we’ve been around long enough to know that sometimes that disloyalty has been our own damn fault. Like maybe not being prepared; not up to speed on something to do with life and death.
    In which case, apologize and ask for help to understand what needs to be known. If they can meet at the point of humility, the disloyalty is redeemable, but keep them on a short leash for a while.

    Obama seems like he is too young for stuff like humility

    SteveG (9fb25f)

  6. kishnevi:

    It wounds like it.

    Glad I’m not the only one whose fingers are too fast for them tonight.

    Heh. Thanks, kish, I’ll fix it.

    DRJ (d43dcd)

  7. What’s the big deal. He fired a left wing general who voted for him. Not many qualified generals did that, only the Slick Willie/Carter era generals are anti-american lefties.

    Scrapiron (996c34)


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