Top Commander in Afghanistan Replaced

[Reason]

YouTube - Gates Replaces Top General in Afghanistan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uf_gKrFXN8&feature=player_embedded)

[Reason]

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today that he asked for the resignation of the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, and recommended that the critical job go to veteran Special Operations commander Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal.

Gates made the announcement in a hastily called afternoon Pentagon news conference along with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen.

Gates refused to detail why he asked for McKiernan's resignation. Instead he said that the Afghanistan mission "requires new thinking and new approaches from our military leaders. Today we have a new policy set by our new president. We have a new strategy, a new mission and a new ambassador. I believe that new military leadership also is needed."

He said McKiernan would remain on the job until his replacement is confirmed by the Senate and in Afghanistan. He also announced that Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez be will assigned to the new position of deputy commander for Afghanistan forces.

McChrystal is currently the director of the joint staff. From 2006 to August 2008 he was the forward commander of the U.S. military's secretive Joint Special Operations Command, responsible for tracking down high-level leaders of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq, including its former leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was responsible for a brutal campaign of bombings and beheadings until he was killed by U.S. Special Operations Forces in April 2006.
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The leadership shift comes as the Obama administration works to execute a new counterinsurgency strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan to quell surging violence in those countries. President Obama, who made the conflict there a key part of his campaign effort, has approved increasing troops levels this year by 21,000 forces, bringing the total to 68,000, and military officials have asked for an additional 10,000 troops.

Last week, Mullan designated the war in Afghanistan as the military's "main effort" -- or most important combat mission.

Gates said there was no specific dispute that led to his decision to replace McKiernan, but he felt "a fresh approach, fresh look in the context of the new strategy, was appropriate."

Asked if McChrystal's background in special operations was a factor in choosing him for this job, Gates said, "I would simply say that both General McChrystal and General Rodriguez bring a unique skill set in counterinsurgency to these issues. And -- and I think that they will provide the kind of new leadership and fresh thinking that the admiral and I have been talking about."

McKiernan took command of the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan in the summer of 2008, and like other top U.S. commanders before him, he has pressed the Pentagon to provide additional forces to combat rising violence and an escalating Taliban insurgency. He oversaw initial troop increases under the Bush administration as well as the ongoing increase of 21,000 troops this year ordered by President Obama. McKiernan also worked to reduce Afghan civilian deaths from coalition military operations, although such incidents continued to occur, drawing criticism from Afghan officials.

[Liberty Star]

Replaced or fired?


US fires top general in Afghanistan as war worsens


By PAULINE JELINEK and ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writers Pauline Jelinek And Anne Gearan, Associated Press Writers – 57 mins ago
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama fired the top U.S. general in Afghanistan on Monday, replacing him with a former special forces commander in a quest for a more agile, unconventional approach in a war that has gone quickly downhill. With the Taliban resurgent, Obama's switch from Gen. David McKiernan to Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal suggests the new commander in chief wants major changes in addition to the additional troops he's ordering into Afghanistan to shore up the war effort.

McKiernan, on the job for less than a year, has repeatedly pressed for more forces. Although Obama has approved more than 21,000 additional troops this year, he has warned that the war will not be won by military means.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_us_afghanistan