Afghan war rules set to change

LAHORE: The new US commander in Afghanistan, Lt-Gen Stanley McChrystal, is likely to be willing – unlike his predecessors – to fight on both sides of the border with Pakistan, the New York Times has announced.

McChrystal, it says, is a counterinsurgency expert who for years has viewed the violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan as a single problem.Senior US officials told the paper that Gen McChrystal would have no “explicit mandate” to carry out military strikes in Pakistan.

At the same time, current and former officials said he was ideally suited to carry out a White House strategy that regards Afghanistan and Pakistan as a single problem. “For him to be successful, he’s going to have to fight the war on both sides of the border,” said Robert Richer, a retired CIA officer who has worked with McChrystal.

Administration officials and lawmakers have said the decision to install McChrystal was driven at least in part by a desire to elevate a new generation of army leaders with fresh thinking. “This is less about Gen McKiernan than it is about a new counterinsurgency strategy and a new leadership to reinvigorate that strategy,” said Senator Jack Reed. McChrystal was a key advocate last year of a plan, ultimately approved by former president George Bush, to use American commandos to strike at Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan. And a senior CIA official based at Bagram was made in charge of CIA and military commando missions in “Afghanistan and Pakistan”.

Two officials said McKiernan had resisted the creation of a new operational command in Afghanistan that Gates announced on Monday. McChrystal not only supported the plan, but has also pressed for the creation of a new cadre of American officers who would specialise in Afghanistan and serve repeated tours there.

(Daily Times)