Check your McChrystal ball for the future of Afghanistan
The Pentagon plans to name Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, a former commander of special operations forces at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, as McKiernan's replacement, CNN said.
Loose-cannon torturer/assassin or successful patriot? Surely he's learned some lessons (Camp Nama resulted in numerous wrist-slaps and convictions for abuse by people apparently under his command). But is his specialty in Iraq, targeted assassination of "suspected terrorists and their supporters", going to play well in Afghanistan when it's iffy in Pakistan border areas?
McChrystal's Zarqawi unit, Task Force 6-26, became notorious for its interrogation methods, particularly at Camp Nama, where it was accused of abusing detainees. - wikipedia
Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) responsible for hunting al-Qaeda in Iraq, employed what he called "collaborative warfare," using every tool available simultaneously, from signal intercepts to human intelligence and other methods, that allowed lightning-quick and sometimes concurrent operations. [...]
[On Saturday, a Washington Post report by Joby Warrick and Robin Wright provided a more detailed look at U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq. They reported that "fusion cells" of special forces and intelligence officers, using spycraft with sensors and cameras that can track targets, have captured or killed hundreds of suspected terrorists and their supporters in recent months.] -- Woodward WaPo article Sept. 2008
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Similar criticism is probably going to apply to any ranking officer with command authority in Iraq. I'm not seeing anything in the Wiki links to indicate he had direct involvement - do we have more information on his actions in specific? I don't recall his name from any of the memos (but there has been so much info, I easily could have missed it). IMO, this just shows that we need a full investigation, with real consequences, to restore confidence in our military and other institutions and also to remove the cloud from over the heads of those who don't deserve dishonor.
Targeted elimination of targets seems like just what the doctor ordered here. Isn't that far better than pitched gun battles and conventional bombings in civilian populated areas? Using the term "assassination" seems to imply a governmental legitimacy for the targets that just doesn't fit this situation. Hamas was elected. As much as I don't like them, killing their leaders is assassination - not the case with Al Qaeda.
All this said, if McChrystal plans torture to acquire intel (or if he has personally ordered it in the past) ... I think you already know my feeling is he belongs in jail.
May 12, 2009 12:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
"McChrystal's Zarqawi unit, Task Force 6-26, became notorious for its interrogation methods, particularly at Camp Nama, where it was accused of abusing detainees. - wikipedia"
from the OP...
I read somewhere that he was up for discipline on this but the brass decided to let it slide. He was definitely involved though not necessarily at the level of the noted abuse.
As for assassination, I don't get the quibble. Zarqawi was assassinated. "have captured or killed hundreds of suspected terrorists and their supporters in recent months" This report may be worded terribly but as stated he committed criminal offenses under the color of the necessities of war.
May 12, 2009 6:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Targeted elimination of targets" ... because targeted elimination of non-targets just wouldn't make sense? :)
May 12, 2009 12:27 AM | Reply | Permalink