Afghan Journal
Lifting the veil on conflict, culture and politics
from Tales from the Trail:
Holbrooke: No “dysfunction” on U.S. Afghan Team
Barack Obama's team running the Afghan war has its issues -- but is it dysfunctional? No, sir, according to Richard Holbrooke.
" I have worked in every Democratic administration since the Kennedy administration, and I know dysfunctionality when I see it," Holbrooke, the administration's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told the PBS NewsHour program.
" There are always personal differences and ambitions, but this is just not true. It's not a dysfunctional relationship."
Holbrooke's interview with anchor Gwen Ifill came after a rough couple of weeks for Washington's Afghan policy planners. Obama sacked his top commander in the region, General Stanley McChrystal, after the bombshell Rolling Stone article which included disparaging comments from McChrystal's team about civilian directors of the war effort -- Holbrooke included. And McChrystal's replacement, General David Petraeus, took over with a warning that there would be no swift turnaround after nine years of war.
from Tales from the Trail:
Obama delivers checkmate by moving generals
President Barack Obama managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat.
In a surprise move, he chose superstar General David Petraeus to replace General Stanley McChrystal, whose team had badmouthed just about every top civilian adviser to Obama on Afghanistan in a Rolling Stone magazine article. 
And with that one decision he managed to wipe away any impression that as commander-in-chief he would allow insubordination, and he preempted any criticism that he would allow the war in Afghanistan to be without competent leadership for reasons of politics and vanity.
from Tales from the Trail:
General headed to the woodshed, will he get the axe?
The sound of palms slapping foreheads could be heard all over Washington, the physical exclamation of "what were they thinking?"
The spectacularly frank quotes from General Stanley McChrystal and his aides mocking Vice President Joe Biden and other top advisers to the president and commander-in-chief were jaw-dropping, not because that's what they really thought, but because the views were uttered to a reporter working on a profile for Rolling Stone magazine. 
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