Afghans express mixed feelings over US command shake-up (News Feature)

By Farhad Peikar Jun 24, 2010, 12:46 GMT

Kabul - Afghan officials said Wednesday they welcomed the appointment of a new NATO commander for Afghanistan, US General David Petraeus, but also expressed regret at the departure of his predecessor.

US President Barack Obama replaced General David Stanley McChrystal on Wednesday and tapped Petraeus to command the NATO and US troops in Afghanistan in a military shake-up triggered by a controversial magazine interview.

'We are saddened that he (McChrystal) is gone,' General Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Defence Ministry, said. 'But this is a completely internal issue for the US government.'

He described Petraeus as 'the most appropriate person' to command the international forces in the country, and hoped that the new general could follow McChrystal's guidelines that reduced civilian casualties and brought better coordination between Afghan and international forces.

McChrystal resigned after US-published Rolling Stone Magazine quoted him and his close aides as mocking Obama and his national security team for their handling of the Afghan war.

President Hamid Karzai had personally called on Obama in a teleconference on Tuesday night to keep McChrystal. Karzai's spokesman said that 'McChrystal has been a great partner of the Afghan government and the Afghan people.'

The Afghan government had also warned against removing the general. It said the move could disrupt the war against Taliban militants and their allies in the al-Qaeda network at this 'sensitive juncture' ahead of a major military operation in the province of Kandahar, a surge of international troops deployment and parliamentary elections planned for later in the year.

However, the White House said that Karzai 'welcomed' Petraeus' nomination and 'assured President Obama that he would take all steps necessary to support a successful transition.'

Obama called Karzai before announcing his decision to emphasize that 'this personnel change in no way impacts United States policy in Afghanistan or the level of our commitment to Afghanistan's future,' according to White House statement.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi said that the removal of McChrystal should be a lesson for foreign troops that this would be the 'Afghan war's final outcome.'

'The removal of McChrystal was not because of his comments' he said, adding that the Obama team was trying to conceal the failure of their strategy by blaming the generals. 'This war, which is the longest in US history, can not be solved by removing the generals.'

McChrystal, who was one of the main architects of the international troops' counterinsurgency strategy, had the strongest relationship with Karzai among the high-ranking US officials involved in Afghanistan.

The sacked general was mainly favoured for his guidelines that limited the use air force in populated areas in an effort to reduce the number of civilian casualties, as well as the coalition's nightly house searches that have caused strong resentment in Afghanistan.

Wahid Muzhda, a former Taliban official and current political analyst said that Petraeus, the former commander of the US forces in Iraq and head of the US Central Command, would be successful if he 'followed the footprint of McChrystal.'

'General McChrystal won the trust of Afghan officials in a very short time, so I think the new commander can only be successful if he tries to reduce civilian casualties and respect Afghan culture,' he said.