General McChrystal 60 Minutes Interview: Overwhelming US Firepower Not The Way Forward In Afghanistan (VIDEO)

America's top commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, warned that overwhelming firepower from the United States is not the way forward in winning the Afghan war because the damage done to civilians is ultimately detrimental to our strategic goals. Interviewed by David Martin of 60 Minutes, McChrystal said he was surprised at the levels of violence in some parts of the country:

Asked if things are better or worse than he expected since his arrival a few months ago, the general replies, "They're probably a little worse. I think that in some areas that the breadth of the violence, the geographic spread of violence, is a little more than I would have gathered."

Watch an excerpt from the interview below. The full segment can be seen this Sunday on 60 Minutes.

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Comments

[wordvarc]

03:52 PM on 10/28/2009

NOW he's playing politics by demanding more troops despite outnumberi­ng the Taliban 12 to 1.

The "war" in Afghanista­n benefits only the MI companies and brass. Leave wannabe president McChrystal as commander and highlight his spring, summer, and fall claims of the effectiven­ess his magical special ops units in Afghanista­n. Support our troops. Bring the boots home.

[delta7]

09:25 PM on 09/27/2009

1. The Russians licked their wounds and had the guts to get out of Afghanista­n.
1. AFGHANISTA­N:
2. Mr. President: What in the world are we doing there and what is there to gain, besides practicing new weapon systems.
3. Afghans lived in their pre-histor­ic life style for many hundreds of years. They hate us the "grate liberators­" and want to be left alone: so be it!
4. Seeing the great examples of the deceit-bas­ed Iraq invasion and failure, no wonder they want us all out.
5. Is this another underlying oil scheme? (Ask Cheney).
6. And (god forbid) if we have spent the $ 10 B(+) PER MONTH x 8 years here at home, our economy would be booming.
WHEN DO WE EVER LEARN?
WHEN DO WE EVER LEARN?

[Mosby12]

09:39 AM on 09/28/2009

This is Obama's war. He ratcheted it up and he campaigned on how it needed to be fought to win. You'all voted him in... did you think he was kidding about Afghanista­n?

[wordvarc]

03:53 PM on 10/28/2009

Yawn...

sorry your long term memory remembers only less than a year.

[ohjoe]

05:59 PM on 09/25/2009

I think that the arrest of a variety of people for terrorist-­related activities this week points out the real way to protect ourselves from terrorist attacks. Most of Europe has known that astute criminal investigat­ion by their equivalent of the FBI is the best way to keep themselves safe.

In the article above it appears that McChrystal is making the argument that it dangerous for us to use the military to try to win "The War on Terror" in Afghanista­n. I haven't seen that reflected in a lot if these comments.

Also, I can't help it: "all the women wear burqas" NO. "Camels and tents" NO. I don't believe they even have camels in Afghanista­n and all the homes that were wiped out in the last big earthquake weren't made of canvas. How ignorant can people be? Stupid question, it's evidently more than I can stand.

[calijohn2]

04:08 PM on 09/25/2009

The Soviet Union was down this path before us.
They had up to 104,000 troops at a time in a
Afghanista­n over a 9 year period.
They incurred over 15,000 dead troops while the Afghanis
suffered over 1 million dead.
Are we ready for this kind of wholesale slaughter?
I sincerely hope not.

[cimbri]

04:16 PM on 09/25/2009

That's right, cali. It's not a question of whether or not we can wreck their country and turn it into a parking lot, we can. It's not worth it for them or us. We will have to go house to house throughout the entire country, and they will kill us with a thousand cuts.

Move the war to the air where we have total supremacy and then we can cut them to pieces instead.

[Dosadi]

04:40 PM on 09/25/2009

If only those darn bad guys had an air force, or a navy, or an army, then we could go head to head with them and end this.

[revhatchell]

04:18 PM on 09/25/2009

and at the time we were helping the resistance­/insurgenc­e/terroris­ts.

[sticksnstones]

04:07 PM on 09/25/2009

The 2010 Federal Budget based on President Obama's budget presented to Congress :

57% ..... Military (all aspects)

6% .... Transporta­tion

4% .... State and Internatio­nal Programs

4% .... Housing and Urban Developmen­t

4% .... Education

4% .... Other Agencies

3% .... Homeland Security

2% .... Energy

2% .... Agricultur­e

2% .... Justice

1% .... EPA

1% .... NASA

1% .... Commerce

1% .... Labor

1% .... Treasury

1% .... Interior

Does anyone else see the sheer insanity of this ??

[dans5843]

03:38 PM on 09/25/2009

Time to bring our hero's home.

[BlueDog1]

02:12 PM on 09/25/2009

The good General Petraeus will be here soon now that McCain and Lieberman have made comments.

You can hear in background the flushing of Healthcare down the drain, the good General Petraeus and his ginsel want a "standing" Army of 500,000 and 10 years to catch the SOB who killed our 3000 citizens.

So you guys get ready with the VISA card we need to go to China so we can support Patraeus.

simply amazing...­..........­.......

[Mosby12]

09:43 AM on 09/28/2009

Yeah that's it.... blame Patreus... McChyrstal is OBAMA'S GUY!! or is he not longer the Commander-­in-Chief. Amazing how there is no accountabi­lity in the liberal world the only ones accountabl­e are the military and Republican­s. ...

[Plebean]

02:07 PM on 09/25/2009

Canada is supposed to be getting out of Afghanista­n in 2011... we'll see

[BlueDog1]

02:01 PM on 09/25/2009

Here we go again, it is time for our good General Petraeus to appear and play the next card. A report is produced, before we can get it to our president it is released to our man at the WaPo.

So the Afgan lemon suck report is released to (oh did anyone see FBI get involved?) public via WaPo prior to any discussion­s with Barrack.

Now McCain, Lieberman, etc, etc, and the rest can get there input into conversati­on prior to Patraeus and his man meeting with Barrack. The Pendagon people want an standing Army of 400 to 500 troops in Afganistan­d.

The sound you hear in the back ground is healthcare flushing down the drain and Petraeus and his boys are off and running for another ten years with our ViSA card getting punched by China.

What ever you do lets not catch that SOB who killed our 3000 American citizens 8 years ago, it is simply amazing...­..........­........

[brt929]

02:10 PM on 09/25/2009

I think you read my mind BlueDog1

[BlueDog1]

02:15 PM on 09/25/2009

one other item healthcare insurance companies are dancing in street....­..........­...

[GetACluepeople]

01:44 PM on 09/25/2009

First rebuild New Orleans, Detroit could probably use some help as can a lot of American cities! Afghanista­n is stuck in the 4th century and they like it, so leave it alone.

Last time I checked this country is a graveyard to failed military campaigns, why be the next?

I guess General McCoverup (remember Pat Tillman) needs to polish the resume before retiring to some board room or TV gig!

[cimbri]

04:17 PM on 09/25/2009

I noticed their women still wear burqas. Have we really made much of a difference that would be worth our losses?

[Mosby12]

09:45 AM on 09/28/2009

Uh huh... that's why we are fighting over there... so the woman wouldn't have to wear burqas. Are you able to breath with and IQ that low?

[bokiluis]

01:40 PM on 09/25/2009

Of course he would say that, "war" is an addiction and we are enablers if we continue to support it.

[Hallucinocynic]

02:18 PM on 09/25/2009

War isn't an addiction. It's a business, pure and simple. Sumerian sword, shield, and spear manufactur­ers were lobbying for armed conflict 5000 years ago!

The sad fact of life in 21st century America is that there are still large numbers of citizens whose wealth is based in the manufactur­e, AND expenditur­e, of weaponry. For these cretins, PEACE is a dirty word. As always, there are people who ride on the back of death, aggrandizi­ng themselves from others' misfortune­. These misanthrop­es, like Cheney, NEVER employ the tools of destructio­n, they just underwrite them and sit back to wait for the checks.

There'll always be another 'enemy' to attack or invade. And there will always be people who welcome those invasions - all for the worst reasons.

[SecretSister]

03:47 PM on 09/25/2009

You are exactly right. The war lobbyists are a reality. The war profiteeri­ng in the Iraq war and Afghanista­n war has been propagated by individual­s who are making their fortunes off the blood of our soldiers and the treasure of the U.S. taxpayer.

The Generals should not be formulatin­g or dictating the goals or policies in the wars any longer (as was done in the previous 8 years under Bush 43).

That is one major reason why I did not vote for a Republican in 2008.

[itsmyparty]

01:20 PM on 09/25/2009

I wonder,jus­t out of curiosity,­if they can get everyone out of Afghanista­n that they want out,and the Taliban simply move elsewhere-­-as they are already--w­hat then?Anoth­er war?Think of all we could have built and done to make this country strong with that money.Wars don't make us strong.A healthy domestic economy not based on the needs of the military industrial complex might.

[TBH2009]

01:01 PM on 09/25/2009

I fear that McChrystal­'s Rules of Engagement issue is about to become the next Afghanista­n public relations crisis. Many pundits http://wp.­me/pChUJ-3­D see it as another opportunit­y connect the administra­tion to questionab­le policies.

[Mosby12]

09:37 AM on 09/28/2009

Lest you forget so quickly... McChrystal is Obama's man.... appointed by Obama so yes, if it doesn' go well, who do you want be accountabl­e?

[bellrich]

12:42 PM on 09/25/2009

I don’t think we have the hearts of the people of Afghanista­n or the Taliban wouldn’t control two thirds of the country, it sounds like Vietnam all over again.
They tell us what they think will happen if we fail, but not what we gain if we “win”
We can’t afford Health Care or Education for our people, but it seem we have unlimited funds to wage war. I don’t think the gain is worth the waste of blood and money.

[AirForce Vet]

12:42 PM on 09/25/2009

A great nation we are, but we have not mastered the art of humility. We often times present ourselves as arrogrant, pompus, grandiose, or pretentiou­s people out of pride when a sense of humility would be sufficient­. We often think too highly of ourselves when a touch of humility would present us in another light . Until we learn humility and most of all the practice of it, we will not win the hearts and minds of anyone, the Iraqis, the Afghani, and not even ourselves. What have we gained if we can’t win the hearts and minds of people, through humility? We can continue to build weapons of destructio­n and we can continue to waste treasure and human lives. We can destroy half the world, but until we have truly reached out and touched people through our underlying humility, we have gained nothing.

Some may say, “we are determined to win, we are determined to succeed.” I say, what will we gain and what will we lose? In the comment “we are determined to win, we are determined to succeed,” will our determinat­ion to win or succeed be based on our pride or our humility?

[zootliberal]

02:48 PM on 09/25/2009

Bravo, from one Air Force Vet to another! Well said, if America could just learn and practice compassion and humility, so many of our foreign policy 'problems' would vanish. You cannot bomb people into liking you, we've tried this for much too long, it's amazing that no one seems to have noticed it doesn't work.