General Stanley McChrystal knows how to promise but not how to keep it. Evidently part of the Afghanistan deal -- built as a swift and short-term surge -- was easy to promise but not to produce. The White House is not pleased by the Pentagon's "inability to live up to an initial promise to have all of the forces in the country by next summer, senior administration officials said Friday," according to a report in the New York Times.
A rapid deployment is central to President Obama’s strategy, to have a jolt of American forces pound the Taliban enough for Afghan security forces to take over the fight. Administration officials said that part of the White House frustration stemmed from the view that the longer the American military presence in Afghanistan continued, the more of a political liability it would become for Mr. Obama. But beyond the politics, the speeded up deployment — which Mr. Obama paired with a promise to begin troop withdrawals by July 2011 — is part of Mr. Obama’s so-called “bell curve” Afghanistan strategy, whereby American troops would increase their force in Afghanistan and step up attacks meant to quickly take out insurgents.One administration official said that the White House believed that top Pentagon and military officials misled them by promising to deploy the 30,000 additional troops by the summer. General McChrystal and some of his top aides have privately expressed anger at that accusation, saying that they are being held responsible for a pace of deployments they never thought was realistic, the official said.
I don't remember seeing complaints from the Pentagon when they were urging the White House to back a surge. But now a promised quick surge of 30,000 additional troops is being delayed by "bad weather, limited capacity to send supplies by air and attacks on ground convoys carrying equipment for troops from Pakistan and other countries presented substantial hurdles," according to the deputy commander in Kabul. Wait! Winter weather, attacks on convoys are something they've never experienced in eight years in Afghanistan?
“Gates and Mullen made a clear statement that this would be achieved by summer’s end,” a senior administration official said, referring to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
You have to wonder whether the Pentagon doesn't need a management consultant to the same extent as our intelligence bureaucracy. The White House -- the president -- got a good deal of praise for the amount of time, effort and focus the decision about Afghanistan received. It almost sounds now as though the Pentagon slept through the whole process.
Or is this just a move to undermine the White House because the Pentagon is unable to function swiftly and effectively? After all, a president is a sometime thing; huge and inefficient bureaucracies are dug in for eternity.
