Word: mckiernan
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...Obama Administration has made Afghanistan the central front in the war on terrorism over the past month. It concluded that McKiernan's tenure there involved too much wheel-spinning, even as the Taliban extended its reach, and that there was not enough of the "new thinking" as demanded by Gates. "It's time for new leadership and fresh eyes," Gates said, refusing to elaborate. He noted that Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen and General David Petraeus, who as chief of U.S. Central Command oversees the Afghanistan war, both endorsed the move. Officers typically serve about 24 months...
...Military experts anticipate that U.S. policy in Afghanistan will become more militarily pointed as well as politically deft once McChrystal and Rodriguez, his 1976 West Point classmate and fellow Afghanistan vet, are confirmed by the Senate. "McKiernan did his best - he was just the wrong guy," says retired Army officer and military analyst Ralph Peters. "McChrystal will ask for more authority, not more troops." By the end of this year, the U.S. expects to have close to 70,000 troops in Afghanistan, including 21,000 ordered there by President Barack Obama. While that's just half the 130,000 troops...
...McChrystal proved adept at using intelligence to increase the impact of the troops at his disposal when he commanded U.S. special forces in Iraq as they hunted down and killed al-Qaeda leaders like Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi. And despite what some call McKiernan's shy demeanor and his previous desire to - in Army parlance - "stay inside his lane," McChrystal is eager to take the spotlight. He will also be expected to challenge the Afghan government when it comes to behavior that undermines the war effort. An official with the Joint Chiefs of Staff expects McChrystal to warn President Hamid...
...everyone welcomed the change, however. Some viewed McKiernan's firing as unfair, noting that he had inherited command of an under-resourced Afghan theater that had been a secondary priority to Iraq. "In Afghanistan, we do what we can," Mullen himself said in December 2007. "In Iraq, we do what we must." And while McKiernan was given his Afghanistan command during the Bush Administration, it was Gates who appointed him - at Mullen's recommendation...
...Gates took pains on Monday to avoid criticizing McKiernan. He told the four-star general that his Army career was effectively over during a face-to-face meeting in Afghanistan last week. "This was a kick in the teeth, but McKiernan took it extraordinarily well," a senior Pentagon official said. Other military officials were less courteous. "I still can't figure out why they put an armored guy with no Afghan experience in charge," one said. A second senior official said, "Dave McKiernan is clearly part of the Army's old guard - he led troops in [1991's] Desert Storm...