WASHINGTON — National security adviser James Jones suggested Sunday that the public campaign being conducted by the U.S. commander in Afghanistan on behalf of his own war strategy is complicating the internal White House review underway, saying that “it is better for military advice to come up through the chain of command.”
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who commands the 100,000 U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, warned bluntly last week in a London speech that any strategy for defeating the Taliban narrower than the one he is advocating would be ineffective and “short-sighted.”
The comments effectively rejected an option senior White House officials are considering nearly eight years after the U.S. invasion.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Jones said he hadn’t spoken to President Barack Obama since his meeting with McChrystal last week. But Jones indicated that the Obama administration expects McChrystal and his military superiors to broaden the range of alternatives for how to proceed.
“We will be examining different options,” said Jones, a retired Marine general and former Supreme Allied Commander Europe. “And I’m sure Gen. McChrystal and Gen. Petraeus and Adm. Mullen will be willing to present different options and different scenarios in this discussion that we’re having.”
Jones was referring to Gen. David Petraeus, head of the Central Command, and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
