Text fwd: Afghanistan: First US Asian Ground War Since Vietnam

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http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2009070342\
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Reuters, July 2, 2009
The new US strategy in Afghanistan
By Jonathon Burch

-US forces will reach 68,000 by year-end, more than double the 32,000 at the end
of 2008. Former special operations chief General Stanley McChrystal has meanwhile taken
command of the present 90,000 US and NATO troops with the Pentagon saying it is
time for “fresh thinking.”

-McChrystal used to command JSOC, the most elite and secretive branch of the US
military’s special forces tasked with hunting down “high-value targets” in
Iraq and Afghanistan. His men are believed to have helped capture Saddam Hussein
and kill both of Saddam’s sons.

Thousands of US Marines stormed deep into Taleban territory in the Helmand River
valley on Thursday at the start of a major new offensive Washington hopes will
turn the tide of the war in Afghanistan.

The offensive is the first major operation under Washington’s new strategy for
Afghanistan and is drawn from the 8,500 Marines who arrived in the southern
province over the past two months to bolster over-stretched British forces in
Taleban strongholds.

The Marines are the biggest single wave of an additional 17,000 extra US troops
and 4,000 more to train Afghan forces ordered by President Barack Obama.

US forces will reach 68,000 by year-end, more than double the 32,000 at the end
of 2008.

Former special operations chief General Stanley McChrystal has meanwhile taken
command of the present 90,000 US and NATO troops with the Pentagon saying it is
time for “fresh thinking.”

Following are questions and answers about the new strategy and the main areas
McChrystal wants to address.

What is the command structure?

McChrystal has a second-in-command in a newly created post. Lieutenant General
David Rodriguez is in charge of the day-to-day running of foreign forces in
Afghanistan.

This mirrors the structure used in Iraq by General David Petraeus, now commander
of US forces in central Asia and the Middle East.

This allows McChrystal to focus on strategy, diplomacy and training Afghan
security forces. He and Rodriguez have been close friends for more than 30
years.

McChrystal has also beefed up his media strategy, calling Rear Admiral Greg
Smith out of retirement. Smith coordinated communications in Iraq for Petraeus.

Counter-insurgency or conventional warfare?

Since taking over last month, McChrystal has told commanders in Afghanistan he
wants a “cultural shift” away from conventional warfare towards
counter-insurgency operations....

His predecessor General David McKiernan was removed, most experts believe,
because Washington was losing patience with conventional tactics that failed to
quell mounting violence.

McChrystal has said most forces in Afghanistan were designed for conventional
“high-intensity” combat using every asset available....That would make the
new Afghan strategy similar to that Patraeus used in Iraq under the so-called
surge from early 2007.

If McChrystal follows that pattern, the Marines will push out of large base
camps to establish smaller forward operating bases, or FOBs, to live and fight
among ordinary Afghans.

The same strategy might also see the use of community-based guard forces along
the lines of tribal councils that sprang up among Sunni Muslim communities in
western Iraq at roughly the same time as the surge, a major turning point in the
war there.
....
McChrystal used to command JSOC, the most elite and secretive branch of the US
military’s special forces tasked with hunting down “high-value targets” in
Iraq and Afghanistan. His men are believed to have helped capture Saddam Hussein
and kill both of Saddam’s sons.

McChrystal has said killing or capturing high value-targets would still be part
of the strategy in Afghanistan but he has also said he understands it has its
limits.

“You don’t really need to chase and kill the Taleban. What you need to do is
take away the one thing they absolutely have to have and that’s access and
support of the people,” he said.
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