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Soldiers at the Nato headquarters in Afghanistan last night said the mood was funereal. With General McChrystal having been relieved of command, many were left wondering whether his vision of victory was dead as well.
“Deeply disappointed” was how one senior officer described the reaction in Kabul. Others fought back tears. Many of them have dedicated their lives to the military and, for more than a year, they have served the charismatic former special forces commander, who was America’s main architect of military strategy in Afghanistan.
Many were left trying to reconcile a sense of betrayal at the way that their leader was treated with their long-held loyalty to their country, and therefore its Commander-in-Chief. Others share the disdain for their civilian leaders voiced in the Rolling Stone expose.
President Obama stressed that the removal of General McChrystal was a change of personnel, not a change in policy. But troops will ask if General Petraeus, the man who is widely credited with “winning” the war in Iraq, will want to attach his name to someone else’s plan in Afghanistan — a plan that has so far has failed to show it can deliver.
The Times
Jerome Starkey in Kabul
Soldiers at the Nato headquarters in Afghanistan last night said the mood was funereal. With General McChrystal having been relieved of command, many were left wondering whether his vision of victory was dead as well.
“Deeply disappointed” was how one senior officer described the reaction in Kabul. Others fought back tears. Many of them have dedicated their lives to the military and, for more than a year, they have served the charismatic former special forces commander, who was America’s main architect of military strategy in Afghanistan.
Many were left trying to reconcile a sense of betrayal at the way that their leader was treated with their long-held loyalty to their country, and therefore its Commander-in-Chief. Others share the disdain for their civilian leaders voiced in the Rolling Stone expose.
President Obama stressed that the removal of General McChrystal was a change of personnel, not a change in policy. But troops will ask if General Petraeus, the man who is widely credited with “winning” the war in Iraq, will want to attach his name to someone else’s plan in Afghanistan — a plan that has so far has failed to show it can deliver.