"We Are Going To Win"

By Lt Col P

Stars and Stripes has a pretty frank discussion with General McChrystal, sometimes known as Ka-Ka Stanley.*

U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan “are not winning yet, but we are going to win,” Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, told Stars and Stripes in an interview Friday.

But the general said it was not possible to say how long it will take to achieve victory, which he defined as a situation where “the insurgency is not an existential threat to the government or the people” of Afghanistan. He added that protecting civilians remains the goal of the allied counterinsurgency strategy.

“There’s no way to put an exact timeline on it, because as I’ve said, the Afghan people will decide [what victory is],” McChrystal said, speaking by phone from Kabul. “[But] I believe that over the next year to 18 months that we’re going to be able to decisively change the perception of momentum and gains by the insurgents.”

That's one of the best public descriptions I've seen yet of this operation. Although I wonder if "not an existential threat" isn't a misprint, because there are people who firmly maintain the opposite.

Read and heed!

* "Ka-Ka" = "Uncle" in Dari.

January 3, 2010 01:00 AM Afghanistan