Generaal Barry McCaffrey is de oud-generaal die tijdens operatie Desert Storm de opmars over de Highway of Death naar Bagdad leidde. Tegenwoordig doet hij, werkzaam aan de militaire WestPoint Academie, periodiek verslag over de oorlog in Afghanistan op verzoek van de generaals Petraeus en McChrystal.

McCaffrey reisde van 10 tot 18 november 2009 naar Koeweit en Afghanistan. Hieronder wat quotes na zijn meest recente verslag van 5 december 2009, na Obama's speech. Hij vond de speech van Obama nodig en logisch, maar 'this was not a speech on military strategy'. Ook McCaffrey wil de surge doorzetten maar zijn verslag en blik voor de nabije toekomst is zeer 'grim'.

- 'We are unlikely to achieve our political and military goals in 18 months'.

- Pakistan is 'one of the most important concerns'; 'Pakistan is four nations under one weak federal government', het Pakistaanse leger is goed, 'guardians of 70-90 nuclear weapons' maar 'they have only tenuous control over much of the country'. '90% of our logistics comes through the Port of Karachi and runs through a dangerous thousand miles of wild country on "jingle trucks"'.

- 'The Taliban now have serious presence in 160 districts of 364. They have Shadow Government at Province level and most Districts throughout the country. Insurgent attacks have increased 60% in less than a year. [...] We should expect 5700 IED attacks' (over heel 2009).

- 'US, Allied and ANA/ANP casualties have gone up dramatically... During the expected Taliban and ISAF simultaneous spring offensives - we may well encounter ISAF casualty rates of 300-500 a month'.

- 'We have now mostly fixed the disorganized NATO/US/Afghan military command and control system. Thankfully, secretary Gates, Generals Petraeus... and McChrystal... have unscrewed this mess. We now have a unifying theater strategic ISAF headquarters commanded by General McChrystal.'
'We now have finally rationalized and made coherent US and NATO airpower in Afghanistan. This war would be immediately unsustainable without the massive employment of US Air Force, Navy (vliegkampschepen Indian Ocean) Marine and Army aviation power'.
(Noot: hier wordt zo ongeveer gezegd dat er geen verschil meer is tussen Enduring Freedom en ISAF, een onderscheid waar de Nederlandse regering vanaf de eerste missie streng aan vasthield).

- Het verslag geeft cijfers over de enorme luchtsteun: bijna 23.000 keer in 2009. 'The air power numbers are huge'. En: 'air power is the glue that holds together the war effort'.

- 'Afghanistan and Iraq are an immensely costly war running in excess of $377 million a day'. In 2009 zal de oorlog $9 billion per maand kosten.

- 'Afghan heroin is estimated to kill more than 10,000 people a year in NATO countries... more than five times the NATO troop loss from combat'.

- 'The international civilian agency surge will essentially not happen... Afghanistan over the next 2-3 years will be simply too dangerous for most civil agencies'.

Eindconclusie: 'our focus must now not be on exit strategy - but effective execution of the political,economic and military measures required to achieve our purpose'.