McChrystal's Frank Talk on Afghanistan

Editor's Note: On June 23, 2010, Gen. McChrystal was relieved of his command following controversial comments made in a "Rolling Stone" magazine interview. Click here for more coverage.

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President Obama is rethinking his entire strategy in Afghanistan after the new commander there stunned the White House with a warning the war could be lost if he doesn't get more troops in the next 12 months. General Stanley McChrystal is up against an enemy that holds the initiative, and he's working with an Afghan government shot through with corruption.

Even with more troops, he warns, there has to be "a dramatic change in how we operate." That stark assessment comes from a man who is perhaps this country's most battle-hardened general and, according to those who have served with him, a one-of-a-kind commander.

60 Minutes and correspondent David Martin went to Afghanistan to spend a week with McChrystal as he races against the calendar. We found him to be blunt, hard charging and fed up with the way the U.S. has been fighting the war for the past eight years. His assessments are as close to an unvarnished war briefing as you're likely to get.

More from 60Minutes.com:
Impressions from Afghanistan
Afghanistan: Country Fast Facts
General McChrystal
McChrystal: Tough Guy
McChrystal: Bulletproof?
McChrystal And The President

Asked if things are better or worse than he expected, General McChrystal told Martin, "They are probably a little worse."

"What's worse than you thought?" Martin asked.

"Well, I think that in some areas that the breadth of violence, the geographic spread of violence, places to the north and to the west, are a little more than I would have gathered," McChrystal replied.

That violence is catalogued in the briefing books he scans every morning at his headquarters in Kabul. But he doesn't trust them to give him a real sense of what's happening out there amid all the ambushes and firefights. Two or three times each week he gets on a helicopter to see for himself.

"You can listen to every radio transmission, down to squad level, and you can watch from the Predator, you can see what's going on. But you can't kid yourself that you know what's going on. But there's a danger that you do, because you hear and you see it and you think 'Okay, I know.' But you're not on the ground with that guy. You don't feel it. You don't hear the bullets. You just can't make an assessment," McChrystal told Martin while they flew above the Afghan countryside.

Flying over terrain that has defeated invaders from the British to the Soviets, McChrystal knows he has to do more than just fine tune a strategy that after eight years of war appears on the brink of failure.

So he has issued a new directive on counterinsurgency operations, telling his troops in writing: "We must change the way we think, act and operate."

Protecting the Afghan people - many of them living in impoverished villages - is now more important than killing the enemy, even if that means taking more risks.

"The parents of kids over here can't be too happy to hear that the commander is telling them to accept more risk," Martin noted.

"This is something that takes a tremendous amount of understanding. What I'm really telling people is the greatest risk we can accept is to lose the support of the people here," McChrystal explained. "If the people are against us, we cannot be successful. If the people view us as occupiers and the enemy, we can't be successful and our casualties will go up dramatically."

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[fedup12]

by Liberalism_Is_Illness June 24, 2010 12:43 PM EDT
Your're wrong you stupid Mexican.Drop that bottle of tequila.There will never be another Vietnam.America wont fail in Afghanistan,Obama will, and the next GOP President will finish Bush's job like we did in Iraq and our troops will leave with honour and with their mission accomplished.
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I love these guys. They would have us spend our treasury, young peoples lives and our sanity until the end of the USA.

Then they would blame the libs for spending too much and they cant buy those extra tanks and bullets. They havent realized these people have been fighting for centuries. And will continue to fight after the good ol USA has spent ourselves into oblivion.

Good luck with finishing the job there illness. Viva la Military Industrial Complex.

[doctajim]

I agree with both of you - this isn't like VietNam; I was drafted and counseled Vets in the late 70's & early 80's. The mistake is to assume similarities that aren't there. I also heard and know the Right-Wing rhetoric of "kill em' all and let God sort em' out" that many grunts, ex-mil types, and armchair generals vomit out in statements. Eisenhower was right when he left office - the life of American men (and now women) is only secondary to Wall Street greed and the rich, who can buy deferments. Don't think so? Go volunteer at a VA Hospital 2-3 days a week; after a mere month you'll hate what the MilIndCmplx has done to this country.

[vietnamwar]

the White House with a warning the war could be lost if he doesn't get more troops in the next 12 months. General Stanley McChrystal is up against an enemy.......

THis is why he is getting Pi$$off...the White house never listen just like the Vietnam war.....

[Brina1969]

He is doing a great job there. We should be proud of having such a brave and serious General there, who is doing all his best. Please, if it is possible, I would like to get his mail-address in order to embolden him in going on in his duties there. My email is: [e-mail] Many thanks for that. Brina1969

[nflowers55]

I am trying to send a letter to General Stanley McChrystal. It will lift his moral and the moral of the troops, I hope.

Please send me his mailing address in Afghanistan or where ever I must send something to him, and also his email address. My address is: [e-mail], my name is Noreen E. Flowers. thanks.

[mary_henry]

Although I respect and agree with most of what General McChrystal had to say in this report one point he made has not left me all week:
"We had gotten to the point where the flags were at half mast all the time, and I believe that a force that's fighting a war can't spend all it's time looking back at what the costs have been. They've got to look ahead and they've got to have their confidence. And I thought it was important that the flags be up where they belong,"

First of all the soldiers in the battlefield do not forget for one second when they loose a commrade. We are not fooling them by "putting the flags where they belong" When a soldier is killed the flags belong at half staff. It is to honor the dead. If it gets to hard to look at flags that are not fully raised then maybe its time we go home. Its bad enough that most of our nation has forgotten that we are at war, the General and his staff should not forget for a moment of the ultimate sacrifice that these men and women have made.

[TxCharlie]

I can't BELIEVE Obama hasn't even talked to the General in MONTHS!!! What kind of idiot have we elected as President?

That is CRIMINAL - And may be costing lives.

Obama seems to have PLENTY of time to go overseas with Oprah to market Chicago for the Olympics, but he can't talk to his own Generals? Give me a friggin' break.

[fedup12]

This war should have been over by the time he took office. What is criminal is what happened prior to 2008.

[kaylag04]

Like Bush 1 and the "100-hour war"; Like Clinton and Somalia; Like Bush/Rumsfeld and Afghanistan; Ignore the troops 'till you've checked the polling data - This is "Similarity You Can Believe In"

[Alipaz]

Finally, Finally, Finally,
Where was Gen. McCrystal when I needed him?
I deployed 2003-2005 to Iraq as a Truck Driver. I feel so compelled to write as the General's feelings mirror my own. My opinion and views were not very popular while I was there.
Where were you when I kept trying to prevent idiots from shooting puppies, just cause they could or driving down the freeways and purposely running families off the road with their huge trucks. Where were you when I was made fun of for caring about these people?
God Bless you Sir...What you are doing in Afganistan will not only re-write the ROE for the American Soldiers, but also gain you a place in History and most importantly in the afterlife. I still look at my own dogs, and my own family when they don't know that I am looking and my eyes water up and I have to find a place to hide this because I just can't explain it to them. I wake in the middle of the night and stare into the darkness and pray for someone do something. Thank You Sir!
Sincerely, SSG Alipaz, US Army National Guard.

[ramos1129]

I found the below on cnn.com:


"Why are we in Afghanistan? Why does it matter? What is the mission? What are the costs? Are we willing to bear them and for how long? And are any allies with us, and how long are they going to be with us?

"These are all questions he has to address, persuade the American people it's in our national security interests to do this, and then commit the resources necessary to carry it out," he said."

Former SecDef Cohen makes excellent sense. We have already paid a terrible price in Iraq, a war of choice, and are repeating the experience in Afgan. Either we are briefed on the true costs, lives and suffering by both US and Afgan people, loss of international prestige, all of these things or we are not. The question is, Are we willing to pay the price and what for?
Obama must answer these questions and not use facts that prove to be false later on.

[nocatnowaco]

to fight and win war over terrorism is like to fight and win war over communism. americans lost the vietnam war and millions of cambodians and vietnameses and laosians lost their lives afterward; the world still has not learned that munch from it and we, especially the afgan government with corruptions problems, do not want to see another killing field in the 21st century. the new strategy to win the hearts and souls of the people will take more man power and time; we need to win convincing the people, not just afgan people, that americans and the west are their friends, not the enemies as have been portrayed by the enemies' propaganda. thanks to all who serve to keep us safe. long live peace, prosperity, freedom and democracy; we the people can not live without them.