The New Special Forces War in Afghanistan

Gen. David McKiernan Sacked - A Bold Move By President Barack Obama

President Barack Obama has made a bold and decisive move firing Gen. David McKiernan over a year before his normal rotation. He is not only signaling a change in direction and philosophy in the war in Afghanistan (see my TYT comment on Feb. 21, 2009), he has also sent a signal to the Pentagon that the Department of Defense is under his command and will follow his philosophy or those that don't will be removed.

This story hit the media yesterday and almost died a peaceful and non eventful death un-noticed by most Americans, but a few journalist resurrected it today after having had a full day to digest just what had happened. And they realized that this was a bigger story than some simple command shift in Afghanistan.

A veteran combat general has been fired and his career ended with the stroke of a pen and a new policy change by the new president. The new commander in chief stepped into the arena and asserted himself and his strategy and his plan of what will now be followed as a battle plan according to him.

The bottom line of what has really happened?

President Hamid Karzi voiced his displeasure last week over the killing of a number of Afghan civilians during American military actions in Afghanistan against the Taliban. And president Obama reacted precisely the way the Taliban had anticipated and hoped that he would, with the aid of the dupe Karzi.

The junior senator now president, knee jerked and fired the theater commander (General David McKiernan) as a placation to Karzi and others who have complained of civilian casualties. However, the larger picture is as usual overlooked and missed by both the media and the man who is supposedly now in charge of all American military forces and strategic planning.

And that reality is as old as the concept of war with the Asian mind IMO. Many Americans believe when they hear the word Asian, that it only represents the yellow races of Chinese and other far eastern Asians. But it also represents those in the middle east and their Asian mental mindsets of warfare are very similar to those of their Oriental cousins when observed and noted over time.

During the Vietnam war, the north Vietnamese learned quickly, that their best and most formidable weapon against the Americans, was the American media. And they played to the media at every opportunity. Life held and holds little meaning to the typical Asian mind during war. They don't look at the value of human life beyond it's value as an expendable commodity or as a tool. Therefore, human life means little to them as does who has to be killed or who has to die, in order for them to reach their desired objectives.

The objective is always more important than the expense of human life when considered and weighed by the Asian mind.

During the Vietnam war, it was a common practice and a common tactic to place innocent villagers amongst Viet Cong military forces and around their military high value targets. They knew quite well and realized early on, that if American forces or American air power were used against them with civilians present, there would be an immediate outcry of unnecessary collateral damage by the American media.

The same is presently being applied by the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They are forcing civilians into areas around their strong holds and bunkered safe houses, knowing full well that if American forces attack? They may very well kill a few Taliban fighters, but they will also kill far more "innocent" civilians.

America cannot fight this war with it's hands tied by the politically correct tactics of a media that doesn't have the sense to know when it is being played. These are obvious and proven tactics as applied by a savage and brutal enemy. And an enemy more than willing to expend the lives of innocent people, in order to inflict psychological and media damage against an enemy that it knows cannot be beaten on the battlefield.

The battlefield has to be expanded to the nightly news, like it was forty years ago, if these terrorist murderers are to have any hope of winning against the Goliath of America. And this week? They claimed a valued prize. They took down the American theater commander General David McKiernan. President Obama fell for the ploy hook line and sinker and served up the general and in essence ended his distinguished military career over simple media and political expediency.

Obama replaced General McKiernan with a special forces commander and will see this new commander promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General, before he assumes command as the new American commander in Afghanistan. But the junior senator from Illinois (now president) has failed to see the trap that has been set for him (by the Taliban) and one that he has willingly walked into with eyes wide open.

The messianic one has from day one been hell bent on figuring out a way to end the war in both Iraq and Afghanistan, so that he can reroute and reclaim the money committed to, these wars for his own socialist desires of entitlements and more socialist programs. But he fails to recognize the danger of his actions. And that danger is now staring him and him alone squarely in the eyes.

No longer will Obama be able to blame everything on his predecessor Bush. Not now. As now he has taken the full mantle of responsibility onto his own shoulders and set course for a full scale sea change and complete alteration of course for the war in Afghanistan.

From here on in (if your read the president's stated intent of tactics) America will fight a limited war in Afghanistan and one more finely tuned to 'special operations tactics and special forces units." Hence the the firing of General McKiernan and the entrance of newly promoted General Stanley A. McChrystal.

General McChrystal is a fine general officer with a fine record, but so was General McKiernan. But General Mckiernan's record meant little to the politically expedient manuvering of placating a puppet Afghan president and an easily led and manipulated American media.

From this point forward, the war in Afghanistan rests squarely on Obama's shoulders and those of his new all star general, who is the supposed specialist in "limited warfare."

But somehow? I don't think that the honeymoon will last that long for either General McCrystal or his boss. The Taliban has plans for the junior G man from Illinois and his eagerness to be apologetic and sympathetic to their obvious ploys that he is too foolish to recognize.

And it won't take long for them to hand him his butt as this drama continues to unfold. America's willingness to win the war against Islamic terror has been sapped by its new president. He wants a quick fix and an easy way out and he will get neither.

I can only believe that by this time next year, it will be all too evident where the mistakes were made and who made them. But the sacrifice will not only be America's military, it will also fall on the newly promoted commander about to step into the breech for the last time. His career is also on the way down, problem is? He hasn't realized it yet.