KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. Gen. Stanley A. McChry stal formally assumed command Monday of American and NATO troops in Afghanistan, taking charge at one of the most violent junctures of the 8-year-old conflict.
In addition to confronting an increasingly powerful Taliban insurgency and presiding over the largest American troop buildup of the war, the four-star general faces rising Afghan anger over deaths and injuries to civilians in the course of the fighting.
McChrystal, speaking at a change-of-command ceremony at the heavily fortified headquarters of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, described the safeguarding of civilian lives as central to the foreign forces’ mission in Afghanistan.
“The Afghan people are at the center of our mission — in reality, they are our mission,” he told an audience of senior commanders, Afghan officials and diplomats. “We must protect them from violence, whatever its nature.”
One of the general’s first actions upon arriving in Afghanistan over the weekend was to meet with President Hamid Karzai, who has been increasingly vocal in his denunciation of civilian casualties at the hands of Western troops. Insurgents also are responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths every year.
Karzai’s office said the president had stressed to McChrystal that recent instances of civilian casualties posed the single greatest threat to public support for the war.
Some Afghan and alliance officials believe McChrystal’s extensive background in special operations could herald an increased emphasis on use of special forces, which operate outside the normal chain of NATO command.
But U.S. Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, who has just become the highest-ranking officer to serve as chief of public affairs for Western forces in Afghanistan, said McChrystal’s special-operations background rendered him uniquely qualified to emphasize to commanders the “strategic consequences” of battlefield errors that result in civilian deaths.
McChrystal assumed command following the removal last month of his predecessor, Gen. David McKiernan.
