McChrystal wasn’t the problem

Opinion: June 28, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

I feel sorry for Stan McChrystal. He got sacked because his aides were too honest with a Rolling Stone reporter. They rashly exposed a problem that is undercutting the war effort: the infighting among civilian and military officials in Kabul and Washington.

The general’s aides shouldn’t have mocked top civilian officials, and he deserved to be chastised. However, President Obama, in explaining the general’s firing, said the war requires “unity of effort.” If so, he’ll need to do more than send the general home.

McChrystal’s staff made snide remarks to Rolling Stone about Vice President Biden, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and National Security Adviser James Jones. The general complained about being “betrayed” by Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador to Kabul. Obama argued that the Rolling Stone piece “erodes the trust necessary for the team to work together.”

What trust? The article reflects serious tensions between Obama’s civilian and military advisers in Kabul, fed by the conflicting positions of White House and Cabinet officials on Afghan strategy. These tensions make it impossible to fashion a coherent policy that Americans — and Afghans — can understand.

Mistrustful

McChrystal and Eikenberry differed over how to wage the war and how to deal with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The relationship between embassy and military commanders in Kabul remains distant and mistrustful.

To complicate matters further, the president’s special envoy to the region, the brilliant but brusque Richard Holbrooke, is resented by embassy staff as well as many in the military. His infrequent presence causes confusion among Afghan officials about who speaks for the president.

Obama’s D.C. team adds to the confusion, with Biden making statements about Obama’s 2011 pullout deadline that conflict with those of the secretaries of defense and state, Robert Gates and Hillary Clinton. The president has yet to clarify whose interpretation he endorses.

“This is a highly dysfunctional team,” said former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, referring to those who work on the war in Afghanistan. “You can’t win the big war if we’re fighting the small ones with each other. And unity has to start at the top.”

Indeed, the only good that might emerge from McChrystal’s exit is if Obama — and Gen. David Petraeus, his choice to succeed McChrystal — can finally weld these players into a team that works together. Otherwise, the sacking will only aid those who are cheering American disarray.

It was very risky for Obama to fire McChrystal, who never challenged the president’s Afghan strategy. McChrystal leaves at a key juncture, with efforts to stabilize southern Afghanistan, the Taliban heartland, faltering.

That said, we are fortunate Petraeus is willing to step down from a broader command of Mideast operations (including Afghanistan and Pakistan) to take the job of NATO and U.S. commander in Kabul. He is wholly familiar with the strategy and the players, and has a history, in Iraq, of making counterinsurgency work.

Of critical import, he made military-civilian cooperation a virtual religion when he worked with Crocker in Baghdad. If he wants to counteract the downside of McChrystal’s exit, Obama should give Petraeus all the backing he needs.

And the president should use McChrystal’s departure to send the message that his entire Afghan team needs to start cooperating with each other.

Leading by example

Obama needs to lead by example. If Gates, Petraeus, and Clinton believe (wisely, in my book) that the 2011 deadline depends on conditions on the ground, and Biden says otherwise, the president should clarify his position and keep everyone on message.

Indeed, if the president really seeks “unity of effort” on the war, it’s time to summon Biden, Jones, Gates, and Clinton, along with Eikenberry and Petraeus, for separate and collective consultations, to see whether they are ready to cooperate. If not, more changes of personnel are needed.

It’s tragic enough that a talented general has been disgraced. But at least this episode should serve some purpose. Otherwise, the civilian-military divisions that brought down McChrystal will continue to haunt Petraeus and undercut our efforts in Afghanistan.

Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.