How’d you spend your day? Here’s how I spent mine: reporting on the two most influential players in Obama’s Afghanistan debate you’ve never read about. They’re two Special Operations leaders, JSOC commander Vice Adm. William McRaven and Vice Adm. Robert Harward, who was a deputy to McChrystal back when McChrystal ran JSOC. Exclusive from the Washington Independent:
Navy Vice Adm. William H. McRaven, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command or JSOC at Ft. Bragg, N.C., and Vice Adm. Robert S. Harward, the deputy leader of the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., are attending and informing the strategy meetings that the White House began in September to refine its approach in Afghanistan. Both men have deep ties to Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in the war. They are said to favor large infusions of U.S. troops to Afghanistan for performing counterinsurgency operations in select population centers, but they also advocate marshalling forces to pursue terrorists across Afghanistan’s rugged, mountainous terrain — a task in which McRaven plays a key role.
Debate about a “purely counterterrorism strategy” advocated by Vice President Joseph Biden was “bounced around at one point, but that has been cast aside,” said a National Security Council staffer who attends the meetings and who asked for anonymity because the debate is still ongoing, “mostly because JSOC has said ‘We’re going to do this anyway.’ And it’s not like they’re going to be in a supporting role.” Biden’s advice, which had practically no support from the armed services, was that the military should shy away from protecting the Afghan people and helping build Afghan governing institutions, and instead focus on the JSOC specialties of going after terrorists directly.
There’s a ton of additional reporting in there and I worked really hard on this, so if you don’t click through and read the whole thing I’m going to take it personally. It’s hard to break news about the Obama Afghanistan strategy review and it’s really hard to break news about anyone related to JSOC so, you know, please read this.