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"My time in the Obama administration turned out to be a deeply disillusioning experience." It was close to midnight on Jan. 20, 2009, and I was about to go to sleep when my iPhone beeped. There was a new text message. It was from Richard Holbrooke. It said, "Are you up, can you talk?" When I called, he told me that Barack Obama had asked him to serve as envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He would work out of the State Department, and he wanted me to join his team. "No one knows this yet. Don't tell anyone. Well, maybe...

I have tremendous regard for Gen. Stanley McChrystal and the outstanding service he has rendered to our nation. I met with Gen. McChrystal in Iraq, where he was joint special-operations commander carrying out the most daring and vital missions. He is a warrior and a patriot. Yet his remarks in Rolling Stone were clearly inappropriate and wrong. I understand and support President Obama's decision to accept his resignation as commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. I also, of course, strongly support the president's decision to have Gen. David Petraeus succeed McChrystal. Petraeus is a true American hero, who...

President Obama yesterday fired Gen. Stanley McChrystal as the top US commander in Afghanistan, replac ing him with Gen. David Petraeus. Obama, as commander-in-chief, had the right both in law and in custom to do so -- and, given McChrystal's injudicious remarks to a Rolling Stone reporter, it's no surprise that he did just that. We wish the president had retained McChrystal -- a brilliant field commander who is highly regarded by many political leaders in the region. At the same time, Obama did well in selecting Petraeus to assume battlefield leadership in Afghanistan. Time and again, Petraeus has proved...

As if the White House behavior on the war in Afghanistan wasn’t erratic enough – General McCrystal jumped into the mess with a dopey interview for the culture icon Rolling Stone. It was clear even in 2009 that the US Commander on the ground in Afghanistan is not on the same page with our ambassador in the country. Remember how Karl Eikenberry, decided to weigh into the madness opposing sending more troops to Afghanistan when President Obama was dithering on the new strategy?. Second comes the question: which one of the two generals in Afghanistan is in charge –...

Tensions between the White House and the US military have been brought into the open in a blistering attack on the U.S administration by the commander of U.S and Nato forces in Afghanistan. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, General Stanley McChrystal, who clashed with the US administration over his demands for more troops to Afghanistan, mocked the vice president and denounced the US ambassador to Kabul. His aides were also less than flattering about President Barack Obama and frequently derided top civilian leaders including special envoy Richard Holbrooke. One anonymous aide calls White House national security adviser James...

The top U.S. war commander in Afghanistan told an interviewer he felt betrayed by the man the White House chose to be his diplomatic partner, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry. An article out this week in "Rolling Stone" magazine depicts Gen. Stanley McChrystal as a lone wolf on the outs with many important figures in the Obama administration and unable to convince even some of his own soldiers that his strategy can win the war.

Usually, foreign trips by presidents result in agreements between governments. Today's lightning trip to Kabul by Barack Obama brought about an apparent ceasefire by feuding members of Obama's Afghan team: Obama, Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Amb. Karl Eikenberry.Lynn Sweet, posted a White House press release of the transcript of a briefing on Obama's visit entitled, Press Gaggle by a Senior Administration Official, at the Chicago Sun-Times.Speaking at Bagram Airfield, Senior Administration Official described a major diplomatic breakthrough by Obama. Unfortunately, it had to do with members of his own administration:SENIOR ADMINSTRATION OFFICIAL: So obviously the President just came from a...

HELSINKI, Finland, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. military recently announced that the elders of the Shinwari tribe, which comprises 600,000 people in Nangarhar province and spans the Afghan-Pakistan border, signed an agreement to keep the Taliban out of their area. The United States agreed to pay $1 million into a Shinwaru tribal fund and $200,000 for a jobs program. The tribal elders admitted that the pact grew as much out of frustration with the Afghan central government as from hostility toward the Taliban. U.S. frustration with the present Afghan central government is no secret. In November, Karl Eikenberry, the...

November 16, 2009, 4:00 a.m. Fumbling on AfghanistanBy the Editors President Obama’s deliberations on Afghanistan have begun to take on an element of farce. It’s understandable that he wants to think carefully before almost doubling our force in Afghanistan as requested by Gen. Stanley McChrystal. But let’s remember: McChrystal is Obama’s hand-picked general, sent to Afghanistan to carry out the “comprehensive” strategy Obama announced in the spring. Obama isn’t drilling down on a strategy that has failed — as Bush had to do in Iraq at the end of 2006 — he’s reconsidering his own strategy before it’s been...

Does anyone really believe he's doing this of his own accord?Ambassador Eikenberry is counseling the president to not send more troops to Afghanistan, and he pulls some weight.  He was the ISAF commander there for two years before going on to a NATO posting and then retiring to become the US Ambassador to Afghanistan.  He's just the man to cover the president's dithering backside.Eikenberry described his serious concerns about sending tens of thousands of more American troops to the country without dealing with the corruption and incompetence of the Afghan government, according to U.S. officials familiar with the cables.Does...

The United States cannot win the war in Afghanistan in the next three months -- any form of even limited victory will take years of further effort. It can, however, easily lose the war. I did not see any simple paths to victory while serving on the assessment group that advised the new U.S. commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, on strategy, but I did see all too clearly why the war is being lost... --snip-- The appointments this summer of Karl Eikenberry as ambassador to Afghanistan and McChrystal as commander of U.S. and allied forces have created a team that...

WASHINGTON, April 28, 2009 – Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry retired here today, 24 hours before being sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, dons a U.S. Army ball cap at the conclusion of the retirement ceremony for Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, Pentagon, Hall of Heroes, April 28, 2009. Eikenberry retires after 35 years of service and will be sworn in as the new U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan in a ceremony tomorrow by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st...

WASHINGTON, March 26, 2009 – Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told a Senate committee today he'll assume the ambassadorship there with a clear recognition that success in both Afghanistan and Pakistan is vital to U.S. national security.Eikenberry, President Barack Obama’s nominee as ambassador to Afghanistan, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee his career has centered around Afghanistan since a terrorist-comandeered aircraft hit the Pentagon just below where he was working on 9/11. “Afghanistan is where the cold-blooded September the 11th, 2001, attacks upon the United States were conceived and they were directed,” he...

CUT Olbermann teased the May 16 Countdown, as watched by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth: "Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? After riots, after taking hits from the White House, Newsweek apologizes, says it's not sure its story about interrogators flushing copies of the Koran down the toilet was entirely correct. But what about the half dozen previous media stories claiming that? And why does a book in a toilet start riots, but a war doesn't?" Olbermann set up his #5 story: "Good evening. What would foment more violence in this country and other western nations? Some...