Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) responsible for hunting al-Qaeda in Iraq, employed what he called “collaborative warfare,” using every tool available simultaneously, from signal intercepts to human intelligence and other methods, that allowed lightning-quick and sometimes concurrent operations.
Asked in an interview about the intelligence breakthroughs in Iraq, President Bush offered a simple answer: “JSOC is awesome.” – Bob Woodward
Crazy news and click on the link below for General McChrystal on Wikipedia, to read some more about him. Also, Bob Woodward mentioned a quick deal about General McChrystal and the reduction of violence in Iraq during the surge. –Matt
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General McChrystal to Replace Top Commander in Afghanistan General McKiernan
May 12, 2009
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decided to replace the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, in a shake-up of the US military mission, a Pentagon official said on Monday.
Gates plans to name General Stanley McChrystal, a former commander of special operations who now serves as director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as the new commander, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
The move, to be announced later at a news conference at the Pentagon, suggested a lack of confidence in McKiernan, who has been on the job less than a year having taken over command in June last year.
McChrystal is a three-star general and would likely be promoted to a four-star rank before taking over the post, the official said.
The defense secretary planned to bolster the US mission in Afghanistan with another senior officer, General David Rodriguez, who would serve under McChrystal, the official said.
The decision to change the military leadership for the mission comes after the unveiling of a new strategy for the war by President Barack Obama and plans to roughly double the US force in Afghanistan to 68,000 by the fall.
Attacks by the Taliban and allied insurgent groups have increased over the past year, particularly in the south, and McKiernan and other military officers have described the conflict as a “stalemate.”
McKiernan, who oversaw the US-led ground attack that toppled Iraq’s Saddam Hussein in 2003, had pushed for an additional 30,000 troops and expressed gratitude after Obama approved the deployment of two more combat brigades as well as 4,000 troops to train Afghan security forces.
McKiernan serves as both the head of US forces and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, which has grown to about 70,000 troops.
The United States has about 45,000 troops in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon, as thousands of US Marines have begun to arrive as part of the build-up.
NATO took command of ISAF in 2003, two years after the Taliban were driven from power in a US-led invasion launched weeks after the extremist government refused to hand over its Al-Qaeda allies for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
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