General Denies Rift With Obama Over Afghan Strategy

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Source: NYTimes

WASHINGTON — 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.”

General McChrystal’s comments came as President Obama’s top advisors are rethinking the strategy that Mr. Obama himself articulated in March, a re-evaluation that has touched off anxiety and confusion in Congress and among allies with fighting forces in Afghanistan.

General McChrystal would not address how many additional troops he would seek in a request he is preparing to submit to the Pentagon. Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said Wednesday that the commander’s request for forces would be submitted this week, even though no decisions would be made until the administration had finished its newest review of Afghanistan policy.In his confidential assessment on the war delivered on Aug. 30, General McChrystal warned that he needed additional troops within the next year or else the conflict would probably result in failure.

“I had absolute freedom to put in a candid assessment, and I did that,” General McChrystal said in his first interview since submitting his 66-page classified report to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Aug. 30, and which is now under review by President Obama and his top national security advisers. “I have not been limited in any way in identifying resources that might be required.”

But the clear indication that the administration, in response, would step back to rethink what has become “Obama’s war,” also left some senior military officers concerned that the White House had lost faith in its own view of the strategy, if not in its new commander.

General McChrystal denied that he had discussed — or even considered — resigning his command, as had been whispered around the Pentagon, saying that he was committed to carrying out whatever mission Mr. Obama ultimately approved.

“I believe success is achievable,” General McChrystal said. “I can tell you unequivocally that I have not considered resigning at all.”

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/world/asia/24general.html