In his blunt and now not so confidential advice to Barack Obama, General Stanley McChrystal has undertaken probably the most dangerous mission of his daredevil career: speaking truth to power. All recent signs from the White House suggest the US president doesn't want to hear what his Afghanistan commander insists on telling him. Obama's choice, according to McChrystal, a former special forces commander, boils down to this: Escalate or evacuate, get on or get out; there is no middle way that does not invite calamity on a grand scale.
Usually sure-footed, cautious Obama has already made mistakes on Afghanistan that will affect the way he responds. He defines the conflict as "a war of necessity", suggesting it is crucial for the safety of America's streets. As in Britain, most Americans do not buy this argument. They see the body-bags come home, they read of Afghan corruption and egregious electoral fraud, they watch a spreading insurgency united by hatred of foreign occupation – and they conclude it's a mug's game.
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