The US entered Afghanistan in October 2001 with too little knowledge of the Afghan culture and its forces did not even make an effective effort to learn the country’s languages, former US Gen Stanley McChrystal said on Friday. Addressing the Council on Foreign Relations, the former general said the blame game between Pakistan and Afghanistan would yield no positive result and that the US should talk to allies in the terror war.
McChrystal said the US and NATO allies were only “a little better than” 50 percent of the way to reaching their war goals. He said the most difficult might be to create a legitimate government that ordinary Afghans could believe in and that could serve as a counterweight to the Taliban.
