In a direct challenge to the President of the United States today, General David Petraues made public comments that the President "should" give General McChrystal the 40,000 troops that he has requested for Afghanistan.
Generals do not demand that the President do anything, instead they are given a "mission" if the General does not think he can comply with that mission he submits his retirement papers. He does not go public and tell the nation what the President should do. It is a good ploy if you are planning on running for the Presidency on the Republican ticket in the next election. No General is so essential to our national security that he can NOT be fired, even President Truman came to that same conclusion about General of the Army, the "Head of Japan and the Far East" after WW2, 5 star General Douglas MacArthur, he also could have had the republican nomination for President, if Ike had not beaten him to the punch, instead General MacArthur retired to New York City and a very quiet end to his life.
Despite how George W. Bush advanced General David Petraues and made him the face of the surge, because of the failure of the President and Vice President to sell the future of the Iraq War to the American public after the major embarassment of no weapons of mass destruction being found, no links to Al Qaeda as VP Cheney asserted, and the massive failure of the Bush/Rumsfeld war plan from 2003-2006.
When the Iraq War started David Petraues was a Major General (2 stars) in 2003 thru 2004 when he was promoted to LTG (3 stars)
Petraeus, David Howellpĕtrā'əs, 1952–, American military officer, b. Cornwall, N.Y., studied West Point (B.S., 1974), U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (1983), Princeton (M.P.A. 1985; Ph.D., 1987). Commissioned in the infantry, he became a colonel in 1995, a brigadier general in 2000, and a full general in 2007. In addition to holding various major staff offices, he has commanded a batallion of the 101st Airborne Division (1991–93) and a brigade of the 82d Airborne Division (1995–97). Petraeus also has held command positions in Kuwait (1999–2000) and Bosnia (2001–2) and commanded (2004) the 101st Airborne in a year of combat in Iraq. Later (2004–5) he led both the Security Transition Command and NATO training mission in Iraq, then was commanding general of the army's Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth. In 2007–8 he commanded American and international forces in Iraq, overseeing a change in counterinsurgency tactics and increase in troop deployment (the surge) that contributed to a reduction in violence and greater security there. He became head of the U.S. Central Command in 2008. Petraeus is considered one of the army's most intellectually gifted officers and is the author of the U.S. Army Counterinsurgency Handbook (2007).
He may be gifted and he may make a viable Presidential Candidate for the republicans, but if the President, or Secretary of Defense Gates, or the Joint Chiefs of Command Admiral Mullen does not get control of General Petraeus and quickly, the President may be forced to fire him. You do not demand that the President of the United States make policy to satisfy the command wishes of a 4 star General, no matter who he is.
Policy is set by the President NOT by Generals or Admirals, even in todays New York Times, General McChrystal is denying a rift with the White House
The senior American commander in Afghanistan on Wednesday rejected any suggestion that his grim assessment of the war had driven a wedge between the military and the Obama administration, but warned against taking too long to settle on a final strategy.
The commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, said in an interview that he welcomed the fierce debate that has emerged this week over how to carry out the war.
"A policy debate is warranted," General McChrystal said in a telephone interview from his headquarters in Kabul. "We should not have any ambiguities, as a nation or a coalition."
He goes on later in the article to plainly show that his desire for the troops is within the next year, a full year from now not immediately as the Republicans are intimating. Winter is coming quickly to that part of the world, all of the warriors from all nations will bunker down for the winter, the Taliban, AlQaeda, and yes even coalition forces, ot's hard to fight at 13-15,000 feet when the temperature is below zero and snow up to your waist.
It would have also helped if the previous adminsitration had not picked another leader Hamid Karzai to back
Chairman to Interim President
Karzai appointed as President of the Afghan Transitional Administration at the July 13, 2002, Loya Jirga in Kabul, Afghanistan.In the months following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Mujahideen loyal to the Northern Alliance and other groups worked with the U.S. military to overthrow the Taliban and muster support for a new government in Afghanistan. In October 2001, Hamid Karzai and his group of fighters survived an American friendly fire missile attack in southern Afghanistan. The group suffered injuries and was treated in the United States; Karzai received injuries to his facial nerves as can sometimes be noticed during his speeches.[13]
On November 4, 2001, American forces flew Karzai out of Afghanistan for protection.[14]
Karzai in June 2004, being applauded by politicians at the United States Congress in Washington, D.C.In December 2001, political leaders gathered in Germany to agree on new leadership structures. Under the December 5 Bonn Agreement they formed an interim Transitional Administration and named Karzai Chairman of a 29-member governing committee. He was sworn in as leader on December 22. The Loya Jirga of June 13, 2002, appointed Karzai Interim holder of the new position as President of the Afghan Transitional Administration.
After Karzai was installed into power, his actual authority outside the capital city of Kabul was said to be so limited that he was often derided as the "Mayor of Kabul". Former members of the Northern Alliance remained extremely influential, most notably Vice President Mohammed Fahim, who also served as Defense Minister.
In 2004 he rejected a US proposal to end poppy production in Afghanistan through aerial spraying of chemical herbicides, fearing that it would harm the economic situation of his countrymen. Moreover, Karzai's younger brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai -- who partially helped finance Karzai's presidential campaign -- is rumored to be involved in the heroin trade[15][16] Karzai said that he has sought in writing a number of times, but failed to obtain, U.S. proof of allegations that his younger brother Ahmed Wali being involved in illegal drugs.[17][18] Karzai's family owned restaurants in the United States before he came to power.[19] The situation was particularly delicate since Karzai and his administration have not been equipped either financially or politically to influence reforms outside of the region around the capital city of Kabul. Other areas, particularly the more remote ones, are currently and have historically been under the influence of various local leaders. Karzai has been, to varying degrees of success, attempting to negotiate and form amicable alliances with them for the benefit of Afghanistan as a whole, instead of aggressively fighting them and risking an uprising. From wikipedia I know not the best source but easily accessible they also did not have the below assessment of the recent election. Or his brothers activities in Kabul.
The latest mess with Karzai is the recent election that most people assume he rigged, and there has been widespread fraud alleged and in some cases proven with thousands of votes thrown out.
The President of the US and the National Security Council need time to digest all of this, and should not be having their hands forced by the military, that is not the function of our generals, it never has been, and can NOT become something we as a free nation encourage or allow.
We have hundreds of Generals, we only have one President and we elect him.
UPDATE
Many people have taken umbrage with my tone and perception, if he had not released statements stating that he and Admiral McMullen support General McChrystals assessments and todays cute by half remarks at the Press Club
Petraeus at the Press Club
No counterinsurgency leadership conference would be complete without the U.S. military’s chief theorist-practitioner of counterinsurgency, Army Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East and South Asia — and this one at the National Press Club is no exception. Petraeus’ remarks in Washington come, of course, at an extremely delicate moment: after the leak of Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s Afghanistan strategy review and President Obama’s earlier vow not to increase forces in Afghanistan until he’s convinced the strategy is correct. Since Defense Secretary Robert Gates thinks that it’s best for Congress not to receive testimony from McChrystal or Petraeus until after Obama’s decision, this liveblog that I’m about to undertake will have to serve as a substitute.
Attempting to force President Obama to accept the Generals assessment by going public with these remarks no matter how cleverly stated and with the leak to the Washington Post earlier this is a blatant attempt to force the President to increase the military force no matter what, and this is wrong, no matter how it is sliced and diced.
Update 2
Obama's determination not to be rushed in deciding the way forward has led to frustration within the military, where many argue that McChrystal's request -- and trying to reverse the momentum gained by the Taliban this year -- is necessary and urgent.
McChrystal, in an interview published on the New York Times Web site Wednesday, rejected reports of a rift between the military and administration civilians on the subject. Asked about rumors that he was considering resigning, which the Times said were being "whispered around the Pentagon," he said, "I have not considered resigning at all."
Although he warned against taking too long, McChrystal said that "a policy debate is warranted. We should not have any ambiguities, as a nation or a coalition."
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, said Wednesday that he and the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, had endorsed "General McChrystal's assessment" of the situation in Afghanistan. Petraeus spoke at a counterinsurgency conference at the National Press Club
From tomorrows WAPO McChrystal Request to Reach Pentagon by End of the Week
some say I am reading to much into this "resigning if he doesn't get what he asked for? Where did that come from I didn't make it up, the warning against taking to long, when he stated yesterday he didn't have to have the troops in country before next year is just me taking things out of context here? I don't think so, I see a concerted effort by military commanders attempting to force a policy they want, regardless of what the civilian leadership wants. But then that is just my opinion.