Replacements are in

Since the beginning it was clear that pacify Afghanistan softly has been a priority for Obama. Gen. David McKiernan, however, didn’t agree with that soft policy. That’s why Robert Gates, the Republican support of Obama in the Department of Defense, decided to get real and forced his resignation.

McKiernan is an old school Army man. He thinks anything is possible with more raw power. That’s why he was always asking for more and more boots on the ground. However, Obama and Gates, this one even since Bush Administration times, were very skeptical to that idea. For them, a softer approach was worth more than old infantry military manuals.

That’s why McKiernan’s out and McChrystal gets in. Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal is the anti-McKiernan. He will arrive in difficult times. With the 82 Airborne taking the lead in Afghanistan from the 101 Airborne as main military force; the budget for that war summing more than the one for Iraq for the first time; presidential elections in the horizon, and diary terrorist attacks, even in Kabul; challenges are guaranteed.

The arrival of McChrystal has been welcomed by the military, both in the high spheres and for the boots on the ground. For the first ones, it’s enough to mention that Gen. David Petraeus, Chief of the Central Command is a close friend of McChrystal. For the second ones, as a fellow special ops commando, McChrystal has the respect of his commarades.

His merits also precede him. Veteran from Iraq, McChrystal achieved one of the biggest challenges for Americans in the Middle East: the neutralization of al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Moussab al-Zarqawi.

However, the strongest point of his CV is too one of his weakest. The problem lies in the fact that Zarqawi’s elimination came, allegedly, only after a series of tortures to detainees in a secret prisoners camp. At least two people died mysteriously during the interrogatories. The unit responsible of the base, the Task Force 6-26, was directly under McChrystal’s orders. But nobody ended up in a trial because a “computer malfunction” eliminated the 70% of the data needed for the investigation of the case.

To that, we have to sum another grey incident on his CV, this one in Afghanistan: the Tillman case. Pat Tillman became a national hero after going to fight the Taleban instead of to a life of luxury, fame and glory with a multimillionaire contract in the NFL. When he died, by friendly fire, the commanders of the unit tried to hide that and said he was shot by the terrorists instead. That was obviously a more fashionable way to die. McChrystal, again, was on top of all this mess.

There is also something on his CV that points against him, but doesn’t have anything to do with his services act. It’s just being an ex-commando. It plays to favor him when we talk about troops. But plays against him if we consider that the Afghans population hate the tendency of the Special Forces units to send in air strikes, one of the biggest problems for the US in Afghanistan -and a huge PR mine for the insurgents.

Incidents are very common. Last week, an American strike left behind three dozen of deaths. And this week, a joint operation with the Pakistanis, made hundred of thousands flee from their homes into refugee camps. If the operation goes up -as it looks like- that number is likely to be increased.

All those attacks were sent in by Special Forces commandos. Not only Americans, all the soldiers in Afghanistan call in the Apache or the drones were in an ambush. It’s an easy, reliable and safe way to get rid of something that otherwise could get them stuck for hours or even days. In fact, it is so easy that many squad leaders are becoming quick triggers. Of the radio. If McChrystal can revert just that, it would be a good signal. But being himself an ex-commando used to call in the cavalry, will he can?




Photo. Lt. Gen. Stan McChrystal/AP