{"id":7287,"date":"2010-06-23T18:15:50","date_gmt":"2010-06-24T02:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=7287"},"modified":"2010-06-23T18:17:22","modified_gmt":"2010-06-24T02:17:22","slug":"stan-the-man-and-the-people-who-own-the-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/23\/stan-the-man-and-the-people-who-own-the-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Stan the Man and the people who own the war"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATE<\/em>: So President Obama has decided the only way to resolve the Rolling Stone<\/em> fiasco \u00e2\u20ac\u201d which is really a COIN fiasco \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is to put Big Daddy COIN in command<\/a>. Anyone else feel like we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re on Ozzy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Crazy Train?<\/p>\n

There were two major themes that I took away from the now infamous Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a> piece on Gen. Stanley McChrystal. The first is obvious: Stan the Man is an arrogant man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s man who prefers Bud Lite Lime over chardonnay, and who has surrounded himself with a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153handpicked collection of killers, spies, geniuses, patriots, political operators and outright maniacs,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and they are super-cool too. They get sloshed at places called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Kitty O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Shea\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and crack jokes about wimpy Washington fops like Dick Holbrooke and Joe Biden. They are running the war, reporter Michael Hastings points out. Their swagger comes from the chief maniac himself, Stan the Man, who enthralls Hastings with such witty repartee as this:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rather have my ass kicked by a roomful of people than go out to this dinner,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d McChrystal says.<\/p>\n

He pauses a beat.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Unfortunately,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he adds, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no one in this room could do it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

With that, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s out the door.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s he going to dinner with?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I ask one of his aides.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some French minister,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the aide tells me. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fu**ing gay.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Swell. But aside from getting himself in a pot of boiling water<\/del> fired over these and other remarks he and his aides make about the President, Biden, Holbrooke, Eikenberry, et al, McChrystal comes off as a real American ideal \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that is , if you are a red-blooded, right wing cowboy who holds the military in much higher esteem than the rest of America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s civil institutions. McChrystal should at least be happy that all of his cliched mannerisms and affectations were given the famous Rolling Stone<\/em> treatment \u00e2\u20ac\u201d like being described as a classic fighting general who goes on regular patrols with his soldiers and whose \u00e2\u20ac\u0153slate-blue eyes have the unsettling ability to drill down<\/em> when they lock on you. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve fu***d up or disappointed him, they can destroy your soul without the need for him to raise his voice.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so dedicated to the war effort and his men that he has seen his wife Annie less than 30 days a year since 2003. When he does see her on their 33rd wedding anniversary, he drags her out with his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inner circle\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to dinner at \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the least \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcGucci\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 place his staff could find.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the cussing and kick-assing, his 100 demerits at West Point, the anti-Parisian-doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t-truck-with-no-fancy-schmantzy-bureaucrats ethos. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lean (that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pointed out several times) and mean, and has the temerity to tell his aides that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s underwhelmed and disappointed with the president when he meets for the first time. Now that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the kind of guy today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Republicans and tea partiers would line up behind in a heartbeat.<\/p>\n

But aside from noting that Stan and his posse are pretty much \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the most powerful force shaping U.S. policy in Afghanistan\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they know it<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and more so, the unbelievable break Hastings got when McChrystal and his people said all of these crazy things about administration officials in front of him and on the record, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the real story.<\/p>\n

Hastings points out what a godforesaken mess Afghanistan is, but he deftly underscores that COIN, and specifically the new rules of engagement handed down by McChrystal himself, are confusing and degrading the morale of the troops on the ground<\/em>. This isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t something that Barack Obama has done \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Hastings notes early in the piece that McChrystal got nearly all the troops he needed for the 2010 surge \u00e2\u20ac\u201d this is about the fundamentals of COIN, the very strategy that McChrystal and his patron Gen. David Petraeus, and friends like Gen. Raymond Odierno, own and have been pushing like a ramrod through Afghanistan since 2009.<\/p>\n

We know Rolling Stone<\/em> has a skeptical if not outright anti-war agenda. But Hastings lets the combat soldiers do the talking and I feel this is the most explosive part of the report:<\/p>\n

One soldier shows me the list of new regulations the platoon was given. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Patrol only in areas that you are reasonably certain that you will not have to defend yourselves with lethal force,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the laminated card reads. For a soldier who has traveled halfway around the world to fight, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like telling a cop he should only patrol in areas where he knows he won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to make arrests. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Does that make any fu****g sense?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d asks Pfc. Jared Pautsch. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We should just drop a fu****g bomb on this place. You sit and ask yourself: What are we doing here?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The rules handed out here are not what McChrystal intended \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been distorted as they passed through the chain of command \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but knowing that does nothing to lessen the anger of troops on the ground. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fu**, when I came over here and heard that McChrystal was in charge, I thought we would get our fu****g gun on,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Hicks, who has served three tours of combat. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I get COIN. I get all that. McChrystal comes here, explains it, it makes sense. But then he goes away on his bird, and by the time his directives get passed down to us through Big Army, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all fu***d up \u00e2\u20ac\u201c either because somebody is trying to cover their ass, or because they just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand it themselves. But we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re fu****g losing this thing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

McChrystal and his team show up the next day. Underneath a tent, the general has a 45-minute discussion with some two dozen soldiers. The atmosphere is tense. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I ask you what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on in your world, and I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important for you all to understand the big picture as well,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d McChrystal begins. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the company doing? You guys feeling sorry for yourselves? Anybody? Anybody feel like you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re losing?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d McChrystal says.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sir, some of the guys here, sir, think we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re losing, sir,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Hicks.<\/p>\n

McChrystal nods. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Strength is leading when you just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to lead,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he tells the men. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re leading by example. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what we do. Particularly when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really, really hard, and it hurts inside.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Then he spends 20 minutes talking about counterinsurgency, diagramming his concepts and principles on a whiteboard. He makes COIN seem like common sense, but he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s careful not to bullshit the men. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are knee-deep in the decisive year,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he tells them. The Taliban, he insists, no longer has the initiative \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think we do, either.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s similar to the talk he gave in Paris, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not winning any hearts and minds among the soldiers. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is the philosophical part that works with think tanks,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d McChrystal tries to joke. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get the same reception from infantry companies.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

During the question-and-answer period, the frustration boils over. The soldiers complain about not being allowed to use lethal force, about watching insurgents they detain be freed for lack of evidence. They want to be able to fight \u00e2\u20ac\u201c like they did in Iraq, like they had in Afghanistan before McChrystal. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t putting fear into the Taliban,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d one soldier says.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Winning hearts and minds in COIN is a coldblooded thing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d McChrystal says, citing an oft-repeated maxim that you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t kill your way out of Afghanistan. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Russians killed 1 million Afghans, and that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not saying go out and kill everybody, sir,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the soldier persists. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You say we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve stopped the momentum of the insurgency. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true in this area. The more we pull back, the more we restrain ourselves, the stronger it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s getting.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I agree with you,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d McChrystal says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In this area, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve not made progress, probably. You have to show strength here, you have to use fire. What I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m telling you is, fire costs you. What do you want to do? You want to wipe the population out here and resettle it?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

A soldier complains that under the rules, any insurgent who doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a weapon is immediately assumed to be a civilian. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the way this game is,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d McChrystal says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complex. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just decide: It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shirts and skins, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll kill all the shirts.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

As the discussion ends, McChrystal seems to sense that he hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t succeeded at easing the men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anger. He makes one last-ditch effort to reach them, acknowledging the death of Cpl. Ingram. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way I can make that easier,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he tells them. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No way I can pretend it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hurt. No way I can tell you not to feel that. . . . I will tell you, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing a great job. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let the frustration get to you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The session ends with no clapping, and no real resolution. McChrystal may have sold President Obama on counterinsurgency, but many of his own men aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buying it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A lot of people back here haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been buying it either. So-called population centric warfare is a fool\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s errand. Trying to protect civilians while clearing out the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bad guys\u00e2\u20ac\u009d only puts the the troops more at risk, civilians get hurt anyway and the Taliban, well they get to slip back into the shadows, feeding off the elaborate shakedown rackets and a seemingly endless source of support from the population we hope to protect. A vicious cycle. So what is the alternative? McChrystal put his finger on it a bit. Classic counterinsurgency, like what was practiced by the British in the Boer Wars, engaged in pacification, putting women and children in concentration camps<\/a>. And, as Stan alluded to, just wiping people out. Breaking them down. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that is what the American people want.<\/p>\n

So, the other alternative is disengagement, withdrawal. COINdinista Andrew Exum<\/a> has already picked up on this from his own reading of the COIN criticisms in the Rolling Stone<\/em> piece:<\/p>\n

Disengagement from Afghanistan? Okay, but what would the costs and benefits of that disengagement be? I am frustrated by the reluctance of the legions of counterinsurgency skeptics to be honest about \u00e2\u20ac\u201d or even discuss \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the costs and benefits of alternatives. Some do, but not many.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes. I wish for that debate to happen. Like right now.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, I do not see this Hastings report as a bad thing. It puts the war squarely in the laps of the COINdinistas, where it should be. On it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s current trajectory, the war will fail and the people who own the strategy should be held responsible for it. This might sound like a no-brainer, but the hawks are already trying to fob this mess off on Obama and the White House as the primary puppetmasters of this clusterf***k. I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good to remind the American people that there are a few generals and a posse of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153killers, spies, geniuses, patriots, political operators and outright maniacs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d who made sure they were \u00e2\u20ac\u0153in charge\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from the very beginning.<\/p>\n

Cross-posted at<\/em> The American Conservative<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: So President Obama has decided the only way to resolve the Rolling Stone fiasco \u00e2\u20ac\u201d which is really a COIN fiasco \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is to put Big Daddy COIN in command. Anyone else feel like we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re on Ozzy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Crazy Train? There were two major themes that I took away from the now infamous Rolling Stone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-7287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7287"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7289,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7287\/revisions\/7289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7287"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}