"Afghanistan: new commander, enduring challenges"/US unilateralism

Conference of Defence Associations media round-up--an excerpt:

...
Elisabeth Bumiller and Mark Mazetti for the New York Times and Ann Scott Tyson of the Washington Post profile the new commander of ISAF, US General David McChrystal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/world/asia/13commander.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30715192

Mark Thompson for Time magazine outlines the reasons why General David McKiernan was fired as commander ISAF. Fred Kaplan for Slate writes that by firing General David McKiernan, President Obama has taken ownership of the war in Afghanistan.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090512/us_time/08599189755500
http://www.slate.com/id/2218160/

Gareth Porter for the Asia Times Online takes a critical look at the appointment of General McChrystal as Commander ISAF. Ralph Peters in the New York Post writes that General McKiernan was the right man for the wrong mission, and that the Afghan mission, unless it is re-profiled, will claim more reputations.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KE14Df01.html
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05142009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/afghan_graveyard_169185.htm ...

There's video at this story, and more video at this PBS Newshour report. Somehow I don't think NATO members received much, if any, consultation on the nomination of their new ISAF commander. Indeed, from May 13:

Weekly press briefing
by NATO Spokesperson James Appathurai

James Appathurai (NATO Spokesperson): Friends and colleagues thank you for coming. Let me quickly get through what I have to get through, and then I will happily take your questions on any issues of interest to you. Let me start with something you all know, and that is the decision by the United States Secretary of Defence, approved by the President, to nominate Lt-Gen. Stanley McChrystal to be the new COMISAF, and of Lt-Gen. David Rodriguez, who is the former Commander of RC East, Regional Command East, as Deputy US Forces Afghanistan. These nominations have yet to be confirmed by the US Senate. I understand that the intention on the part of the United States is to move relatively quickly with that, ie. weeks rather than months, but that is of course an internal US process. The NATO Secretary-General of course was called by Secretary Gates before the announcement to discuss it. The North Atlantic Council has been fully informed by the US Ambassador. The nominations, as I mentioned, have yet to be confirmed by the US Senate. Let me stress, or note, of course that General McKiernan has done very well from a NATO point of view as COMISAF. He’s very well-respected throughout NATO and I can’t comment any more on General McChrystal until of course he is formally approved by the Senate and takes up his new position.

On Afghanistan, there has been… sorry, let me just make one more point on this. Lt-Gen. Rodriguez, as I mentioned, has been nominated as Deputy Commander for US Forces in Afghanistan with the COMISAF being double-hatted also is commander of US Forces Afghanistan. This is a three-star position. It is, as you know, in line with the increase in the number of US Forces. Gen. Rodriguez will wear a US hat; he will not be part of a NATO command structure [emphasis added]. The ISAF and OEF missions remain separate. The ISAF mandate stays as it is. The command structure does not change, just to be clear from that announcement...

As I wrote at the end of an earlier post, when a US command shake-up was still under consideration:

...would "a second [American] commanding general with a large staff of officers", presumably as part of USFOR-A, in effect supplant ISAF as the real HQ for forces formally under NATO? All a bit confusin'...

Some unity of command, eh? But, with NATO as it is, hard to blame the US. The new president, for his part, certainly is being, er, unilateral with regard to appointing NATO commanders ("A surprise (not least since he's a sea dog) and late pick for NATO SACEUR, made apparently without consultation..."). But there is amazingly little comment on this predilection of his.

Paul Koring puts a very Globeite spin on the command change here.

(By the way, there has been an illness in my family so I've been hors de blogging; things getting better but will be light here for a while.)