‘WTF’ in Afghanistan Means No More Troops
01 July 2009 9:16 am by Taylor Marsh
Bob Woodward writes the must read article of the day from Camp Leatherneck, which has NSA chief James Jones stating what Secretary Gates has said many times before. Obama is capping troops levels in Afghanistan, at least for the short term but maybe indefinitely, where they are today, which is still high, but it does send a message. It also drives home the decision to put Gen. McChrystal in charge. Woodward:
Jones delivered his message after a 30-minute briefing by Marine Brig. Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson, who commands 9,000 Marines here, nearly half the new deployments Obama has sent to Afghanistan.
The day before in Kabul, Jones delivered the same message to Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the new overall commander in Afghanistan. McChrystal has undertaken a 60-day review designed to address all the issues in the war. In addition, Jones has told Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that they should focus on implementing the current strategy, completing the review and getting more Afghan forces involved in the fight before requesting additional U.S. troops for Afghanistan.
Obama has upped troops levels this year, which Jones reminded the current commander Marine Brig. Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson, who stated he felt they were “a little light” on forces. That’s when Jones drilled down, getting very personal.
Well, Jones went on, after all those additional troops, 17,000 plus 4,000 more, if there were new requests for force now, the president would quite likely have “a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moment.” Everyone in the room caught the phonetic reference to WTF — which in the military and elsewhere means “What the [expletive]?”
Nicholson and his colonels — all or nearly all veterans of Iraq — seemed to blanch at the unambiguous message that this might be all the troops they were going to get.
Message received? Well, it’s been sent, though Nicholson clarified to say that what they need are more Afghan forces, which is the nut of the problem wherever we find ourselves, post Bush-Cheney, now isn’t it? It’s the challenge with an interventionist foreign policy.
Which brings us to Woodward’s Obama book and a little nugget that comes via the New Republic:
This time around, speculation is that Woodward will turn to national security adviser Jim Jones, whom Woodward forged a relationship with. In my piece, I reported that Jones was a guest of Woodward at his wife Elsa Walsh’s fiftieth birthday party held at Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee’s house. “He and Elsa were glued to Jones at the cocktail party before the dinner started,” one attendee told me. Jones is proving to be a valuable Woodward source already. …
Meanwhile, Obama continues to push back on Karzai, this time having Jones publicly embrace Gov. Gulab Mangal, someone who Karzai is reportedly trying to oust as he makes deals to keep himself in the presidency.
First, Jones publicly embraced Mangal’s leadership and said he was there “on behalf of the president, who is committed to a new strategy. I know of no place in Afghanistan that has more potential.”
He said “the cornerstone is the Afghan people, the Afghan military and the Afghan police,” adding, “We want to make sure Afghans control their own destiny.”
Obama is trying to play hard ball in Afghanistan, which remains a tough slog, with Jones saying there’s “urgency but not panic.” At least not yet.
Woodward’s article comes under the heading cover of “preventing another Iraq.”
