Defense Secretary Robert Gates has replaced Gen. David McKiernan with Lt. General Stanley McChrystal, former head of the Joint Special Operations Command. The new commander was chief of staff/military operations in Afghanistan in 2001 and '02 and was running commando operations in Iraq before the big promotion.
This blogger is far from a military expert, but what took the Defense Dept. so long to make the leadership shift? It’s been obvious for quite some time that Special Ops is the way to fight the Taliban.
A friend who served in Afghanistan and recently retired from the Army Corps of Engineers expressed great pride in the work of U.S. Special Ops forces. They are heroes on horseback who dress and live like Taliban fighters. To the Corps’ veteran, everything else the U.S. military is achieving there is window-dressing compared to the main task at hand: gaining stability in Afghanistan.
A beefed-up U.S. commando force could provide the President with the greatest gift of all: capture and ultimate trial of Osama bin Ladin. Bagging the Al-Qaeda chief -- whether he is holed up in Afghanistan or neighboring Pakistan -- would drive Obama’s approval ratings (currently not to shabby at the 66 percent mark) through the roof. Imagine the drama surrounding a 2 a.m. press conference called to give the nation news that Osama has been caught.
The Osama trophy would earn Obama begrudging support from now recalcitrant Republicans on Capitol Hill.
(Special Ops photo via Dept. of Defense)