General McChrystal: ‘It’s the end of the beginning’

Stealing one of Churchill’s most famous lines, "This is not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning," General Stanley McChrystal this morning heralded a new phase, almost a new campaign, in the war in Afghanistan.

He was speaking to his commanders in Kabul following President Obama's announcement of the dispatch of a further 30,000 US troops, a ringing endorsement of McChrystal's counter-insurgency strategy.

This gives the American general a total force of 150,000 international troops and 150,000 Afghan soldiers to turn things around before the first international force reduction promised by Obama for the summer of 2011.

It seems a tall order, given the reverses and setbacks of the past eight years which have seen the Taliban surge back and take over whole chunks of this country. But McChrystal was confident. "Yes we can do it," he said this morning. "We have the forces I need and now we must work with the Afghan government and people to improve their governance, security and economy."

His key concept is 'embedded partnering'. This means international forces working, living and fighting alongside Afghan counterparts. And McChrystal is leading from the front. He says he will work with President Karzai at every turn. "We are not here to occupy or conquer this country, we are here to defend the Afghan people and help them to defend themselves better."

"We have learned this from Iraq," said one of his senior advisers, Sir Graeme Lamb. "Don't get ahead of the government of the country you’re there to help."

McChrystal paid tribute to all soldiers under his command, and their wounded and dead. But above all he said he paid tribute "to the Afghan soldiers who have suffered and died in greater numbers than our forces, and the Afghan police who have suffered much greater loss than the Afghan army".

Most of the 30,000 troops now coming in will partner, train and mentor Afghan army units. They will fight alongside them in crucial areas of Taliban infestation already earmarked - southern Helmand round Marjah and the key river systems round Kandahar, home turf of the Taliban founder Mullah Omar, and homeland of President Karzai's own branch of the Populzai tribe.

The Americans will now have overwhelming force in Helmand, some 25,000 combat troops, whereas the British only have about 5,000 combat troops. This means the Americans finally have the weight of numbers to clear whole areas of the 'necklaces' of IED buried bombs and stay on the ground at places like Sangin and Musa Qala.

This poses a dilemma for the British. They can stay on, focusing on a small part of 'Helmandshire', but they would be far more effective operating elsewhere in more sparsely populated areas, where they would have the numbers and tactical skills to make a difference. However, this would mean them coming under direct American command as a mobile reserve. With elections looming, could Gordon Brown be seen to do this? Military expediency says yes, political vanity says no.

For all the emphasis on supporting Afghan civil society, a serious hidden war is going on in the shadows - and not entirely to the Taliban’s advantage. "They [the Taliban] look divided and fractured in several places now," says Lamb, McChrystal's old buddy from British Special Forces and now his adviser.

Special Forces strikes against known leaders and hardliners have gone up five-fold in the past three months. "We've made it plain to the hard men, and we must, that we're going to hit them till their eyeballs bleed," says Lamb with a wolfish grin. But, he says, most of the rural, local Taliban - the large majority - can be won over. ·