Source:
Army TimesOfficials: No rift between Obama, McChrystal
By Sean D. Naylor - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Oct 30, 2009 9:51:53 EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan — Officials in Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s headquarters here are strongly denying that the senior U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan is at loggerheads with the White House over strategy or is bucking his chain of command.
Their comments reflect concern here over how some commentators and politicians in the U.S. have characterized the debate about the way forward in Afghanistan in terms that appear to pit McChrystal and other military leaders against the White House.
“Our concern here is, why would individuals back there subscribe to Gen. McChrystal any notion that he’s got a difference of opinion with his civilian masters, in the White House, (the National Security Council), anywhere, the secretary of defense?” said a senior official with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, which McChrystal heads. “There’s nobody that understands better than he does his responsibility and where he fits in all that. And it’s really frustrating that this has become a Washington-contrived rift when there is no (rift).”
Pundits and politicians have seized on two events in particular to buttress their argument that the general is seeking to outmaneuver the administration of President Barack Obama and force it to accede to his request for a reported additional 40,000 more troops. The first was the leak in September of McChrystal’s classified assessment of the situation in Afghanistan to The Washington Post.
Read more:
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/army_afghanistan_debate_103009w/
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