Obama Is Evaluating New Afghanistan Assessment

04 September 2009

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Documents & Texts from America.gov

Washington — Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the nation’s senior military leadership are preparing evaluations of a new assessment of the situation in Afghanistan, and the way ahead, for President Obama’s consideration.

At a Pentagon press briefing September 3, Gates said any request for additional troops and resources for Afghanistan would follow after discussions with the president’s national security team, which includes military leaders, presidential security advisers, key Cabinet officers and Vice President Biden.

Gates called for an assessment of the situation in Afghanistan, and also what, in the best judgment of the new commander, Army General Stanley McChrystal, it would take to implement President Obama’s new strategy. In late March, the president announced a comprehensive new civil, military and diplomatic strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, with the goal of disrupting, dismantling and defeating al-Qaida to prevent another terrorist attack against the United States. An additional objective is to blunt efforts by Taliban insurgents who are trying to regain control of the country.

McChrystal, a veteran of U.S. Army special operations forces, was selected by Obama to implement the military component of the new strategy. He is regarded as an expert on counterinsurgency operations and conflicts of the type facing U.S. forces and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

Evaluation of McChrystal’s assessment “is being done as part of a systematic, deliberative process designed to make sure the president receives the best military information and advice on the way ahead in Afghanistan,” Gates said.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the Pentagon briefing that he has already met twice with the other chiefs of staff and planned another meeting with them on September 4 to wrap up their review in preparation for meeting with Obama after the Labor Day holiday (September 7).

“We’re going to do that with a clear eye not only on the needs in Afghanistan, but also the needs of the force in general and on our other security commitments around the globe,” Mullen said.

“It’s clear to me that General McChrystal has done his job as well, laying out for his chain of command the situation on the ground as he sees it, and offering in frank and candid terms how he believes his forces can best accomplish the mission the president has assigned to him,” Mullen said.

Gates said he received the still-classified assessment September 1 and informally forwarded a copy to the president for his initial reading September 2. The White House said the president is reading the assessment at the presidential retreat, Camp David, over the Labor Day holiday weekend.

Shortly after taking office, Obama approved the deployment of 21,000 additional U.S. forces to Afghanistan to cope with the anticipated Taliban spring offensive and to provide additional security for the August Afghan elections. Allied nations also sent additional forces to provide greater election security.

Included in that deployment plan were 4,000 U.S. military personnel to act as trainers for the Afghan National Army and to join Afghan army units in the field.

Gates told reporters that McChrystal reported to Afghanistan in June, and the United States still does not have all of its additional forces in the country. He said the civilian surge ordered by the president is also not fully in the country.

“I think what is important is for us to be able to show over the months to come that the president’s strategy is succeeding. And that is what General McChrystal is putting in front of us, is how best we can, at least from the military’s standpoint, ensure that we can show signs of progress,” Gates said.

NATO Assessment

NATO will also study the McChrystal report, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said August 31 in Brussels. “This is an assessment by the ISAF commander, it is not a change of strategy,” he told reporters at a briefing. The document did not include a request for additional troops in Afghanistan, he added.

Officials at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Mons, Belgium, and NATO’s Joint Force Command Headquarters at Brunssum, Netherlands, will evaluate the new assessment, Appathurai said. Then McChrystal’s assessment will be submitted to NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and the North Atlantic Council, the 28-member alliance’s governing body, for consideration and approval.

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