Stanley McChrystal on the United States’ Longest War

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: I mean you were JSOC in Iraq, you did catch Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was the leader of the ISIS iteration there, the Al-Qaeda iteration in Iraq. That was a success. Then you led troops in Afghanistan, and frankly it’s currently not a success. I mean Afghanistan is the longest war, we’ve seen the highest number of civilians being killed there in a – in a long, long, long time. We see the Afghans even making the – the killings of their own forces a secret, like a national security secret. What is – what is going wrong? I mean this is a of money, nearly a trillion dollars, so many thousands of troops, so much death, so much injury.

STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL: Yes, and Christiane, you’ve been there. I know there’s a tendency to paint with a broad brush from afar and see Afghanistan as a violent place with bearded mullahs, war lords, and the Taliban and corrupt officials. And that’s not untrue, but if you get close, you see an unpreceded (ph) number of females in school. Now for 17 years, ever since 9/11, you see a new generation rising. It is not perfect, it’s not even on an (inaudible) to get to perfect in my lifetime, but what it is, is it’s an effort by part of that population to have a better future. Now if we made a strict business case I could say we should walk away from Afghanistan, sort of wipe our hands of it and say that’s – that’s money wasted. That might be true and it’ might be lies but I don’t think that. I actually think that when we make an effort to give people hope, when we make an effort to give people opportunity, when we try to communicate around the world that getting stability and getting opportunity in an area like this, I think it’s an investment that over the very long term plays off. I think the United States is actually been using – living off some of the things that were done for decades before now that built up a level of confidence and good will in our nation. So there is no easy answer in Afghanistan and I wouldn’t be arguing to put a lot more troops or do anything like that but I think a partnership with the people of Afghanistan and clear communication that we’re involved in the region because we care does make a difference.