Gen. Stanley McChrystal did not resign because U.S. casualties in Afghanistan are running at record levels, because the much vaunted Marja operation is not working, or because the Kandahar offensive is already in trouble and it has not fully started. He must have wanted to leave because of the failed “Counterinsurgency” doctrine written at the Army Combined Arms Center, Ft Leavenworth, KS, that he was forced to implement.
The real story is not about the change in commanders but the continuation of a failed counterinsurgency (COIN) doctrine, and there is abundant evidence that the new doctrine is failing. The “Counterinsurgency Field Manual – US Army Field Manual No.3-24” – is a PhD dissertation on Organizational Management interspersed with key counterinsurgency histories and appropriate nomenclature.
I have written articles for this website/blog, The MARINE CORPS GAZETTE, and editorials for news papers on how they should never consider winning “hearts and minds” in Afghanistan. There is no sustainable national identity in Afghanistan, local tribes, clans, and families rule the rural areas. The idea of winning hearts and minds in a country which has no democratic experience, no national identity, sees the U.S. as occupiers, and now we have a time table for withdrawal which means we will leave and the Taliban will come back, is a non-starter.
Ralph Peters put it best in his latest column, New York Post, July 1, 2010: “(The US Army’s) counterinsurgency doctrine assumes that doing good unto others will lead to us doing well. But we’re lashed to a hated Kabul government, the enemy’s strength is growing, our allies are bailing, our showpiece Kandahar operation’s on hold, corruption runs into the billions, drug lords prosper, the population’s increasingly wary of us — and our casualty rates are rising, as our troops are prevented from pre-empting or even pursuing the enemy. Other than that, things are fine.”
Where are the COIN Manual advocates now like Kilcullen, Nagl, Bolger, Cohen, Sewall, etc., suddenly they aren’t speaking the praises of the new COIN doctrine…
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I think McChrystal would have guts it out to the end. However when he was summoned back to Washington to face a thin skinned CinC over petty bull shit, he figured he would simply resign and let someone else lose this politically run war. Unfortunately I believe it was America’s loss with not just a zero gain, but a negative blow to the democrats hope for election / reelection. Stupid is as stupid does. The military will not forget come the next election.