It's time to clean house on the diplomatic side of Afghanistan too

Still, canning McChrystal doesn’t end the dysfunctional disunity that has plagued the war effort for many months. The U.S. ambassador, Gen. Karl Eikenberry, is on record as stating that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is an unsuitable partner for a counterinsurgency campaign. He may be right—he almost certainly is right—but, since counterinsurgency cannot succeed without a suitable partner heading the national government, Eikenberry is in essence disagreeing with the policy. His relations with McChrystal were exacerbated by the fact that the two men are longtime rivals; but those personal animosities clouded a professional tension that is probably untenable. If U.S. policy isn’t going to change, Eikenberry, too, should go.

Richard Holbrooke should be sent packing, as well. He’s the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, but after he screamed at Karzai at one of their meetings, he’s no longer welcome at the palace in Kabul. (It took a trip by Sen. John Kerry and 300 cups of tea to settle the Afghan president down.) Holbrooke would have been canned a while ago, were it not for special pleading by his immediate boss and longtime friend, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But, as Obama said today, “War is bigger than any one man or woman, whether a private, a general, or a president.” He should expand the list to include “a special envoy.”