McChrystal identifies lessons learned
The former commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Stanley McChrystal, today identified a series of critical tenets regarding recent operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Addressing RUSI members in London on 3rd March, McChrystal highlighted a series of lessons learned in both operational theatres and stressed how coalition forces ‘didn’t do as well as we could have’.
First, he discussed the importance of theatre-specific situational awareness, describing how initial efforts to rid Afghanistan and Iraq of Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein respectively, had morphed into different mission sets.
Highlighting the presence of ‘thousands’
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