McChrystal Calls for More Troops, Strategy Overhaul

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, warned the Obama administration in a confidential memo that failure to deploy more troops "will likely result in failure." The memo was sent to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Aug. 30, and is now under review by the president and his national security team.

"Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months) -- while Afghan security capacity matures -- risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible," McChrystal writes in the 66-page report (pdf).
McChrystal warns that a new counterinsurgency strategy is necessary, and stresses that his request for more troops is predicated on the adoption of a plan for them to emphasize protecting Afghans rather than killing insurgents. "[I]nadequate resources will likely result in failure," he writes. "However, without a new strategy, the mission should not be resourced."

The general also offers an unsparing critique of the Afghan government, which he says is as damaging to the country as the insurgency. Official corruption has led to a "crisis of confidence" among Afghans, who are also unsettled by what they perceive as America's lack of resolve. McChrystal says that Afghan culture -- including the way insurgents are influenced and recruited -- is "poorly understood," and the coalition effort is hampered by its narrow focus on killing insurgents.

McChrystal: More Forces or "Mission Failure" [Washington Post]