AFGHANISTAN. Kabul. 2009. General Stanley McChrystal, two months into his command of Coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Several years after retiring from the military, he gave an interview to Foreign Affairs. He stated,
“If you look at the role I had in Iraq, it is sexy, it is satisfying, it is manly, it scratches an itch in
American culture that people like.”
He went on to say, “But I was doing that as a part of a wider effort, and it was that wider effort
that I took control of in Afghanistan. . . . The whole point of war is to take care of people, not
just to kill them. You have to have a positive reason that protects people, or it’s wrong.”