Afghan violence worse than expected!
NEW YORK - September 25, 2009 - General Stanley McChrystal’s interview with CBS News National Security correspondent David Martin will be broadcast on the season premiere of 60 Minutes this Sunday, September 27, at 7 pm ET/PT.
Martin spent a week talking to McChrystal in Kabul and following him on his daily mission overseeing coalition forces in Afghanistan.
When asked if things are better or worse than he expected since his arrival in Afghanistan a few months ago, the general replied, "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."
Relying on overwhelming U.S. firepower is not the way to proceed in Afghanistan warns McChrystal.
Martin spent a week talking to McChrystal in Kabul and following him on his daily mission overseeing coalition forces in Afghanistan.
When asked if things are better or worse than he expected since his arrival in Afghanistan a few months ago, the general replied, "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."
Relying on overwhelming U.S. firepower is not the way to proceed in Afghanistan warns McChrystal.
"You know the favorite saying…'To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.' We can't walk with only a hammer in our hands," says McChrystal.
This statement about not relying on overwhelming U.S. firepower makes details of McChrystal's classified report on Afghanistan even more intriguing after this portion was revealed by NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Wednesday, September 23, 2009:
"The numbers are really pretty horrifying. What they say, embedded in this report by McChrystal, is they would need 500,000 troops - boots on the ground - and five years to do the job. No one expects that the Afghan Army could step up to that. Are we gonna put even half that (number) of U.S. troops there and NATO forces? No way."
This statement about not relying on overwhelming U.S. firepower makes details of McChrystal's classified report on Afghanistan even more intriguing after this portion was revealed by NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Wednesday, September 23, 2009:
"The numbers are really pretty horrifying. What they say, embedded in this report by McChrystal, is they would need 500,000 troops - boots on the ground - and five years to do the job. No one expects that the Afghan Army could step up to that. Are we gonna put even half that (number) of U.S. troops there and NATO forces? No way."
