President Obama's national security adviser Gen. James L. Jones appeared on CBS' Face The Nation Sunday and weighed in on comments made by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.
Gen. Jones stated that Gen. McChrystal's assessment that more troops are needed in Afghanistan was McChrystal's "opinion."
In a confidential report that was leaked to The Washington Post, McChyrstal stated that he needs more troops in Afghanistan, or the war "will likely result in failure." McChrystal believes that 40,000 more troops are needed in Afghanistan, according to officials.
According to The Washington Post, Jones "chided" McChyrstal during his appearance Sunday:
Jones said that advice to the president should come though the military chain of command rather than by open campaigning for a strategic decision.
"Ideally, it's better for military advice to come up through the chain of command and I think that General McChrystal and the others in the chain of command will present the president with not just one option, which does, in fact, tend to have a ... enforcing function, but a range of options that the president can consider," Jones said.
Gen. Jones also appeared on CNN's State of the Union. The New York Times:
General Jones asserted that he does not believe Afghanistan is "imminent danger of falling" to the Taliban and that the presence of al Qaeda "is very diminished."
"The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country," he said. "No bases. No buildings to launch attacks on either us or our allies."