Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

McChrystal 69, Eikenberry 23

My CNAS colleague Matthew Irvine wandered over to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to watch Gen. McChrystal and Amb. Eikenberry testify. This is his report: Tuesday morning I went to see the House Armed Services Committee question General Stanley McChrystal. For most of the session, that is just what the hearing titled “Afghanistan: Results of the ...

575759_091209_ricksb2.jpg
575759_091209_ricksb2.jpg

My CNAS colleague Matthew Irvine wandered over to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to watch Gen. McChrystal and Amb. Eikenberry testify. This is his report:

Tuesday morning I went to see the House Armed Services Committee question General Stanley McChrystal. For most of the session, that is just what the hearing titled “Afghanistan: Results of the Strategic Review, Part II” seemed to be. The high-profile testimony was an opportunity for the 63 members of the committee to hear from the top American officials in Afghanistan.

Together, General Stanley McChrystal and Ambassador Karl Eikenberry brought a total of seven stars and nearly a decade of command experience in Afghanistan to the House Visitor Center. However, the Armed Services Committee appeared to only recognize half of this portfolio. Most of the committee forgot about Ambassador Eikenberry. (Perhaps because his grey suit lacked four polished stars?)

The committee devoted its time to General McChrystal at Ambassador Eikenberry’s expense, asking the commander three times the number of questions and giving him countless more compliments. My informal question tally: McChrystal 69, Eikenberry 23. This number even gives the committee credit for questions the ambassador posed to himself.

The attention given to McChrystal is understandable given the nature of the audience, the armed services committee. Regardless, only one member, Chairman Ike Skelton, mentioned the leaked cables written by Ambassador Eikenberry just weeks ago that expressed a high level of doubt of a troop surge, given the state of Afghan governance. Some members did ask Eikenberry about Afghan corruption but failed to link it to General McChrystal’s stated campaign goal of “governance and security.” Effective counterinsurgency is said to require civil-military integration at every level; it’d be nice if Congress led by example.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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