Missing the point

John McCain will be on teevee for, like, the 13th time since being soundly defeated in the presidential election. He will, of course, call for "more troops" in Afghanistan, and will say that we should do what "McChrystal wants." Sadly, though, I doubt he's read McChrystal's report, which has been entirely misrepresented by politicians and reporters alike. Von has a very useful summary of what the Afghanistan commander really believes.

In light of the increasingly frenetic calls to reject Gen. McChrystal's report and to bring the troops back home from Afghanistan, it's worth looking at what Gen. McChrystal actually said. The unclassified version of McChrystal's report is here. The striking part of McChrystal's report is how different the report is from its caricature in the press. George Packer is correct when he writes:

McChrystal’s report is written in plain English, it’s self-critical, and it shows more understanding of the nature of the fight in Afghanistan than most journalism and academic work. The U.S. military now believes that the Afghan government is just as much a threat to success as the Taliban. That’s a bold conclusion, one that our civilians have not been willing to reach, publicly at least. And the description of the different Taliban networks is as clarifying as it is disturbing.

Admittedly, this humble blog also reacted to the report without, ya know, reading it; though in my defense, I was reacting more to Republeiberman reactions to it, but nevertheless.