Obama sacked his top commander in Afghanistan

US President Barack Obama sacked his top commander in Afghanistan on Wednesday over insubordination, stressing that in a democracy institutions were stronger than individuals.

Mr Obama appointed General David Petraeus his new commander in Afghanistan where the outgoing commander, Gen Stanley A. McChrystal, enjoyed much support, both among ordinary people and the rulers.

“Today I accepted Gen McChrystal’s resignation as commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan,” declared President Obama in a brief address to the media at the White House Rose Garden.

“I did so with considerable regret, but also with certainty that it is the right thing for our mission in Afghanistan, for our military, and for our country,” he said.

“Our democracy depends upon institutions that are stronger than individuals,” declared Mr Obama as his generals and defence chief stood by him.

“War is bigger than any one man or woman, whether a private, a general or a president. And as difficult as it is to lose Gen McChrystal, I believe that it is the right decision for our national security,” he said.

An article in the latest issue of the Rolling Stone magazine quotes the general and his staff making disparaging remarks about President Obama and his team. They also questioned the way the Obama administration was conducting the war.

The article claims Gen McChrystal has seized control of the war “by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House”.

President Obama came to the Rose Garden with his Defence Secretary Robert Gates, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen and Gen Petraeus who stood by him as he spoke.

“I have a responsibility to the extraordinary men and women who are fighting this war and to the democratic institutions that I’ve been elected to lead,” said Mr Obama while explaining why he accepted Gen McChrystal’s resignation.

Democratic traditions, he noted, also required “strict adherence to the military chain of command and respect for civilian control over that chain of command”.

And that’s why “as commander-in-chief I believe this decision is necessary to hold ourselves accountable to standards that are at the core of our democracy”.

Gen McChrystal, who earlier had a one-to-one meeting with Mr Obama and also attended an Afghan war council meeting at the White House, did not come to the Rose Garden where the president openly questioned his judgment for making those remarks in the Rolling Stone article.

“The conduct represented in the recently published article does not meet the standard that should be set by a commanding general,” he said.

He noted that the commentary in the article “undermines” the civilian chain of command. “It erodes the trust that is necessary for our team to work together to achieve our objectives in Afghanistan,” he said, adding: “Now is the time for all of us to come together.”

“The Commander-in-Chief has made it clear no one is bigger than the mission and nothing less than a unified effort in Afghanistan will get the job done,” said John Kerry, chairman of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

As President Obama urged the US Senate to confirm Gen Petraeus’s appointment as swiftly as possible, Senator Kerry indicated that lawmakers would not delay the process.

“His decision to return Gen Petraeus to the battlefield provides not just continuity in philosophy, but tested diplomatic skill that is at the very centre of a military strategy which hinges on progress in governance to sustain military gains,” he said.

Senator Kerry, who also was ridiculed in the article, noted that the Marjah offensive, which Gen McChrystal and his team initially depicted as a major achievement, was not really a success.

“We cannot afford another minute of distraction. We’ve already seen in Marjah that impressive military gains cannot be maintained without effective local governance and Afghan ownership. This must happen to give the mission a chance to succeed,” the senator said.

President Obama stressed that while the decision was a difficult one, it did not represent a change in the course of the war. “This is a change in personnel, but it is not a change in policy,” he said.

“I don’t make this decision based on any difference in policy with Gen McChrystal, as we are in full agreement about our strategy. Nor do I make this decision out of any sense of personal insult. Stanley McChrystal has always shown great courtesy and carried out my orders faithfully,” he said. “I did so with considerable regret, but also with certainty that it is the right thing for our mission.”

Gen McChrystal got his marching orders earlier on Wednesday in Washington, where he met the president face-to-face after a meeting with Secretary Gates at the Pentagon.

Mr Gates had hand-picked Gen McChrystal for Afghanistan last year, calling him a driven visionary with the fortitude and intelligence to turn the war around. President Obama fired the previous commander at Mr Gates’ recommendation.

On Gen McChrystal’s advice, President Obama also agreed to dispatch an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan.

The general was in Kabul on Monday evening when the US media reported excerpts from the Rolling Stone article. As soon as he learned about the article, President Obama ordered Gen McChrystal to rush to Washington for a meeting which ultimately led to his departure.

The Wednesday meeting preceded a regular session of the administration’s strategy team for Afghanistan, held in the White House Situation Room. Gen McChrystal would have joined via teleconference had he not been summoned.

New America Foundation, a Washington think-tank, backed Mr Obama’s decision, saying the general had “established a culture of insubordination and indifference toward civilian leaders and partners in government”.

Even the right wing Fox News, which is staunchly anti-Obama, noted: “If not insubordination, the remarks in the Rolling Stone magazine article were at least an indirect challenge to civilian management of the war in Washington by its top military commander.”

The US media pointed out that in America military leaders rarely challenged their commander-in-chief publicly, and when they did, consequences tended to be more severe than a scolding.

While announcing Gen Petraeus’s appointment, President Obama noted that in his current post at Central Command, the general had worked closely with the Afghan and Pakistan governments, and with all US partners in the region.

“We are going to build Afghan capacity. We are going to relentlessly apply pressure on Al Qaeda and its leadership, strengthening the ability of both Afghanistan and Pakistan to do the same,” he said.

“That’s the strategy that we agreed to last fall. That is the policy that we are carrying out in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

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