[darrels joy]

Petraeus: I’ll Change Afghanistan’s Rules of War

• By Spencer Ackerman
• June 29, 2010 |
• 10:20 am |
• Categories: Af/Pak

Who called it? Noah mused last week that Gen. David Petraeus might relax the strict rules on U.S. troops in Afghanistan once he takes over command of the war there. Looks like Petraeus is proving Noah right.

In his opening statement, Petraeus vowed to “look very hard” at the directives Gen. Stanley McChrystal put in place to cut down on civilian casualties. McChrystal was following counterinsurgency principles that Petraeus, in large part, pioneered and championed within the U.S. military, principles that led McChrystal to say that the attitudes of the Afghan people will be “strategically decisive” in the war.

And Petraeus, as you’d expect, publicly supports that mission to the hilt.

“In counterinsurgency operations, the human terrain is the decisive terrain,” he said, using a jargony term to mean the Afghan people. “I will continue the emphasis on reducing the loss of innocent civilian life to an absolute minimum in the course of military operations.” But that doesn’t mean he’ll continue McChrystal’s rules as written.

In Afghanistan, McChrystal went further in restricting troops’ ability to use force than Petraeus did in Iraq. McChrystal cut way back on the use of air cover for U.S. troops in firefights, instructed them to give Afghans the right of way on highways, and urged them to cut off battles when insurgents retreat to populated areas. The biggest overlooked aspect of Michael Hastings’ Rolling Stone piece that ended McChrystal’s career was the frustration troops in Afghanistan felt under the rules of engagement — fairly or unfairly.


So, to send a new signal to those troops, Petraeus called it a “moral imperative” to allow troops “all the support they need when they are in a tough situation.” He said discussed it with the Afghan leadership over the last few days and indicated that he secured their “full agreement” for that principle. While Petraeus didn’t specifically promise a change in the rules or their application, that’s a pretty strong indication that a change is in the works when Petraeus gets to Kabul — something Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the committee, indicated he wanted to see the Senate ensure happens before the July 4 holiday.

So while no one should expect Petraeus to abandon population-centric counterinsurgency — “we cannot kill or capture our way out of an industrial-strength insurgency,” he said, so you don’t get it twisted — “we will continue to pursue relentlessly the enemies of the new Afghanistan in the months and years ahead.”

Photo: U.S. Army



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