The real issue in Afghanistan is not the Runaway General but a Runaway War. The current phase of the war is now in its ninth year, but in truth the war started in 1980 when the United States, along with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, organised and sustained Afghan resistance to the Soviet invasion. McChrystal’s indiscretions have inadvertently shed a little light not only on the rotten core of the Afghanistan effort, but also on the excessive influence of the military in US politics. This briefing argues that it is not personnel change but policy change that is needed in Afghanistan. Read more in the attached pdf.