Gen.+Stanley+A.+McChrystal,+former+top+commander

Home Small Wars Project Just Wars Essays Perspective Assignment Perspective on Afghanistan

General Stanley A. McChrystal Becca J. Gen. McChrystal || || A quality perspective will: •Answer the questions in extended power paragraphs. inconsistently used •Draw evidence from two high quality, credible sources. •Cite evidence internally and in a Works Cited-- inaccurately formatted. •Post your entry on the wiki by Friday, December 9th.
 * [[image:http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/05/11/timestopics/mcchrystal-190.jpg width="190" height="269"]]

**1. Introduce your person and explain why he/she has a credible opinion on the War in Afghanistan.** **Credit source** **2. Describe your person's perspective on the U.S.'s involvement in Afghanistan.** Your answer should address following bullet points: Incomplete answer •Why is he/she interested in Afghanistan? Is it personal, political, social, economic, religious, humanitarian, etc? •How was this person affected when the Taliban controlled Afghanistan •How has this person been affected by the United States presence in Afghanistan? •How would this person's life change if the United States left Afghanistan abruptly? **3. How would your person answer the question: When should the United States leave Afghanistan?** **No evidence** General Stanley A. McChrystal was a former commander of the Joint Special Operations command in the U.S. military. McChrystal's forces were the ones credited to capturing Saddam Hussein and killing the leader of Mesopotamia's Al Qaeda. He ran all special operations in Iraq and was the top commander of American forces in Afghanistan. McChrystal revealed secrets in a magazine and denounced Vice President Biden which caused him to be relieved of command (fired by Obama) in June 2010. This General is trained in counterinsurgency and had overseen the escalation of American troops in Afghanistan from day one. His military knowledge and experience gives him a credible insight on whether or not to leave Afghanistan. In a sense, this war is personal to General Stanley A. McChrystal. His job revolves around Afghanistan and what we should be doing in it. All his actions could affect the outcome of the war and the people fighting in it. Also, he was very interested in saving civilians. This shows a humanitarian view of his. McChrystal would even publicly emphasize protecting citizens over engaging insurgents. McChrystal took his job as a way to protect civilians. Gen. McChrystal said that "even now the military lacks sufficient local knowledge to bring the conflict to an end (Walsh)." From the start, he encouraged that we needed to protect civilians. He expanded security forces and restricted airstrikes which ended up reducing civilian casualties (NYT). When McChrystal was appointed to command he immediatley applied the counterinsurgency doctrine which "rests on core assumptions, including that using lethal force against an insurgency intermingled with a civilian population is often counterproductive (NYT)." He believes we need to stay in Afghanistan until citizens can walk around without fear and have a sense of safety and security. This would mean we need to tighten security forces and American troops and gradually hand over power to the Afghan government. Such as the Marja "failure". For the the first time, Afghan government and police force went in behind a Taliban stronghold and the U.S. went behind to support them. It didn't go as planned but showed that we are gradually handing down power and the government is taking resposibilty.

"Stanley A. McChrystal." The New York Times . N.p., 18 Apr. 2011. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. .

Walsh, Delcan. "US had 'frighteningly simplistic' view of Afghanistan, says McChrystal." thegaurdian . N.p., 7 Oct. 2011. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. .

** Paragraph 1: ** Introduce your person and explain why he/she has a credible opinion on the War in Afghanistan. **Paragraph 2:** Describe your person's perspective on the U.S.'s involvement in Afghanistan. This answer has 4 parts. ** Paragraph 3: ** How would your person answer the question: When should the United States leave Afghanistan?