McChrystal Denies Rift, Says He's Not Quitting

The 'skunk at the family picnic' has Obama's ear

(NEWSER) - It may have looked as though Joe Biden lost last fall’s argument over strategy in Afghanistan, but he actually emerged with a powerful, well-defined role in the administration. His position, in his own words: “the skunk at the family picnic.” Biden has been the in-house skeptic on Afghanistan, but his subtlety and discretion have deeply impressed President Obama, Politico reports. “He’s not off the leash,” says one official. More»

Pundits can't understand how the general let this happen

(NEWSER) - Stanley McChrystal’s Rolling Stone stunner has pundits baffled—no one can understand how he let this happen. Here’s what they’re saying:

• Joe Klein of Time defends the “McChrystal I know” as “an extraordinary man” who, unfortunately, has no PR skills and is “incapable of fudging the truth.” He’ll have to be fired, “and it is a real tragedy, because Stanley McChrystal is precisely the sort of man who should be leading American troops in battle.”

We need him to win the Afghanistan war, so grow up and stop undercutting him

(NEWSER) - Sure, Hamid Karzai is a "vain, mercurial, hypersensitive man" presiding over "a system that is massively corrupt." But the US still should—and must—learn to work with him, Fareed Zakaria writes in the Washington Post . There is no alternative to Karzai, Zakaria argues; if the US hopes to win the war in Afghanistan, the "Obama administration needs to grow up, recognize that in the real world Karzai is the best partner it has and roll out the red carpet for him" when he visits Washington in May. More»

Administration's decided it can't wipe out Taliban

(NEWSER) - President Obama has requested detailed, province-by-province analysis of Afghanistan’s local and tribal leaders, hoping to find more effective partners than the country’s weak and corrupt central government. The administration has concluded that no surge in troops will be able to eradicate the Taliban as a political force, but they believe that some provincial leaders, including Taliban-affiliated ones without ties to al-Qaeda, may be trusted to run their provinces without international help. More»

White House denies a decision has made, but UK's move would make more sense

(NEWSER) - President Obama will announce a troop surge in Afghanistan next week, sources tell the BBC, with Afghanistan’s ambassador to the US saying Obama will commit as many as 45,000. The White House says there’s been no decision, with spokesman Robert Gibbs sniffing that the BBC wouldn’t be the first to get such news anyway. More»