The Hurt Locker Document: Commander’s Initial Assessment.
View Hurt Locker trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GxSDZc8etg
The Afghan population have suffered at the hands of the Taliban for far too long, having lived through very arduous periods of conflict which have lasted for 30 years.
What upset has arisen over the matter of ”burden sharing” in respect to this Afghan War, has led to NATO having to guarding itself from exceptionally visceral attacks from the American Military’s top brass.
Being the author of a new document about what strategic progess all coalition forces are making in Afghanistan, (entitled Commander’s Initial Assessment), US Army General Stanley A. McChrystal calls for NATO’s ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) to reformulate a new incremental civic rebuilding strategy.
A lot of revisionist thinking will have inevitably been gone through by the US and Coalition Forces in order to completely renew and represent the political image of Afghanistan to the outside world in the future.
There are slight hints within the context of this assessment of how incredous and scathing the US Military has become with NATO over time.
General McChrystal scoffs at the ISAF for what he perceives as their lapse operational management of situations on the ground in Afghanistan. He goes on to suggest that ISAF needs to re-schematize its operational procedures at the highest chain of command, to strengthen its working relationship with the GIRoA. (Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan)
General McChrystal highlights this point well, he claims that ISAF has not properly understood the basics of counterinsurgency warfare in the context of Afghanistan specifically, and goes on to say that the ISAF must improve how it works in two areas:
- change the operational culture of ISAF to focus on protecting the Afghan people, understand their environment, build relationships with them, and;
- transform ISAF processes to be more operationally efficient and effective, creating more coherent unity of command within ISAF, and fostering stronger unity of effort across the international community.
(Excerpt taken from Commander’s Initial Assessment – 30 August 2009. An UNCLASSIFIED document written by US Army General Stanley A. McChrystal for COMISAF)
Indigenous insurgencies committ ferocious acts of violence against many of their own kinsfolks, whilst the people more generally suffer from a servere crisis of confidence in their government.
Battling to reduce the effect of the people’s mistrust, General McChrystal’s assessment calls also for a “change in overall “Operational Culture” of the ISAF.
No regiment or battalion belonging to either UK, Europe, or America are regarded as simple cannon fodder. McCrystal suggests that any renewed strategy should aim towards elevating the number of recruits enlisting for the Afghan National Security Force (ANSF).
Weblinks: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/oct2009/mccr-o03.shtml
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/21/AR2009092100110.html
http://www.acus.org/new_atlanticist/mcchrystal-biden-afghanistan-plan-short-sighted
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