In his White House speech in which he announced McChrystal's resignation and Petraeus' appointment, President Obama made specific mention of Pakistan while pledging to continue the fight to break the Taliban momentum in Afghanistan and tackle al-Qaeda. 'We are going to build Afghan capacity. We are going to relentlessly apply pressure on al-Qaeda and its leadership, strengthening the ability of both Afghanistan and Pakistan to do the same,' he said. It was obvious from his remarks that he still considered Afghanistan and Pakistan, or Af-Pak as it is referred to in Western circles, as battlefields of the same war theatre where the well-entrenched al-Qaeda and the Taliban needed to be tackled. And this wasn't going to happen without full cooperation from Pakistan.

General Petraeus too will have to visit Pakistan in the near future. He has been a frequent visitor there, but his visits weren't secret, unlike those of McChrystal, who used to come unannounced for meetings with the Pakistani military authorities.

Though McChrystal is gone, the fallout of his departure has still not been fully understood. His staff members were being gradually eased out and more resignations are on the cards.

A year after taking over as the commander of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, the highly-rated McChrystal lost his job after conceding that he erred while passing mocking remarks about President Barack Obama and his team of advisers. His departure at such a crucial stage of the Afghan war has put in jeopardy the strategy devised by him and the President's security officials after months of deliberations to reverse the Taliban momentum.

McChrystal, variously described as the 'runaway general' and someone who spoke his mind, on at least two previous occasions earned President Obama's wrath but he was allowed to continue in his job. Once last autumn, the President reportedly censured him for his blunt utterances while seeking more US troops for the war effort in Afghanistan. At the time, it seemed as if McChrystal had forced President Obama to comply with his demand for almost 40,000 extra troops by arguing that the war against the Taliban would be lost in 12 months if his request wasn't granted.

On another occasion, he passed disparaging remarks about Vice President Joe Biden, who opposed McChrystal's demand for more troops and escalation of the Afghan conflict and instead advocated limited and selected operations against al-Qaeda in the Af-Pak region. The tolerance shown towards him despite his indiscretion appears to have emboldened him as is evident from his recent inflammatory comments about not only Biden, but also the national security adviser General (Ret'd) James Jones, the President's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke and the US ambassador in Afghanistan, General (Ret'd) Karl W Eikenberry.

Though McChrystal resigned, it is obvious that the President sought his resignation at a meeting he had with him at the white house that lasted 31 minutes. In other words, he was fired from his job. It was a huge fall for the general who was appointed by President Obama in May 2009 and entrusted with the responsibility to turn around the faltering war effort after the unceremonious removal of his predecessor General David Mckiernan. The civil authority over the US military and the primacy of American democracy was thus reaffirmed, as Obama risked appearing a weak and vulnerable President if he hadn't sacked the undisciplined McChrystal. Being the first black President in US history, he would have looked 'uncomfortable and intimidated'  the offensive words that McChrystal used to describe Obama after a meeting with him and other top generals at the White House.

Though McChrystal is credited by President Hamid Karzai's government with taking steps to reduce civilian casualties during NATO military operations and listening to the Afghan authorities and elected representatives, it would be wrong to claim that 'collateral damage' didn't take place under his watch or that night-time raids on private homes and mass arrests of civilians were called off. More than 100 people were killed in Kunduz province last year when US warplanes on a request by a panicky German military officer bombed a crowd gathered near two oil-tankers hijacked by the Taliban to get a free supply of petrol. Other major incidents in which innocent Afghans were killed also took place and as usual the US and NATO military authorities initially denied civilian casualties only to concede them later. Perhaps the only difference was that McChrystal apologized for the civilian deaths and offered condolences to the bereaved families.

President Karzai's government rather stupidly backed McChrystal and asked the Obama administration to retain him after describing him as the best American general to have commanded forces in Afghanistan. It amounted to poking a nose into US affairs. Besides, it necessarily annoyed the other generals who had served in Afghanistan. It may also have irritated Obama, who during his presidential election campaign had been critical of Karzai and still seems to have a low opinion of him due to the rampant corruption in the ranks of his government.

McChrystal raised hopes when he was made the commander of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan due to the reputation that he had earned as head of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) that was credited with capturing former Iraqi president Saddam Hussain and killing al-Qaeda leader for Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.  He was expected to do well in Afghanistan also. That didn't happen even though he got more soldiers and resources as part of the Obama strategy. In fact, the huge NATO military action in the small farming villages of Marjah in Helmand province in February-March this year wasn't the success that it was made out to be by the US commanders and a sympathetic Western media. The 15,000 troops and hundreds of aircraft that he pushed into the battle failed to fully dislodge the Taliban fighters, who are now back in Marjah posing a threat to the foreign and Afghan forces deployed there. McChrystal, who promised to bring 'government in a box' to Marjah to deliver security and services to the people to lure them away from the Taliban, failed to do so and had to concede recently that Marjah was like a 'bleeding ulcer.'

In fact, the failure of the Marjah offensive put into question the prospects of victory in the subsequent offensive in Kandahar, which was certainly a more difficult mission due to its larger population of one million and being the former Taliban spiritual capital. The Kandahar offensive had to be delayed due to the risk of failure and because it was opposed by the pro-government tribal elders in the province. It was obvious that McChrystal's strategy wasn't working and Obama was getting impatient for results. It is likely that the US President was looking for an opportunity to replace McChrystal and the latter obliged him by making those intemperate remarks that no self-respecting President and Vice President could have tolerated.

Though Obama, while appointing Petraeus as the new commander of US forces in Afghanistan, made it clear that there would be no change of strategy, one will have to wait and see if this will indeed be the case. Petraeus no doubt was involved in finalizing the Obama strategy for Afghanistan in his capacity as commander of the US Central Command, but he would like to leave his imprint on the war effort and do things in his own way. He is credited with turning the tide in Iraq through the military 'surge' there and it is likely that he will try to use some of the same tactics that he employed there to win over the Sunni tribes by offering them money and weapons to take on al-Qaeda. One should now expect a much bigger use of US dollars to bribe Taliban fighters to make them change sides and give up the fighting. However, such tactics may not achieve the desired results as the situation in Iraq was different from that in Afghanistan.

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