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A member of the ACCTS staff reflects on the War in Afghanistan as her son deploys for the fifth time in less than 10 years: "October 7th marked the 12th year of the war in Afghanistan, the longest in our history. These reflections are from my heart as I try to provide information as accurately as possible. I trust God will lead each of you as to what you do with it."
My son Rudd, a Captain in the Marine Corps, has just arrived in Afghanistan with a team to help train Afghans assume their own security responsibilities. This month I would like to focus on his boss, Marine Corps General John Allen, the Commander of U.S. and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan. (What we often think of as NATO troops is actually the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF))
 Gen Allen graduated from the Naval Academy in 1976. In 2002, he returned as Commandant of the Academy while my son was there. He replaced GEN David Petraeus, USA, as the ISAF Commander on 18 July 2011. Gen Allen is tasked to continue the Afghan transition mission, but without 30,000 surge troops and with the American public losing interest in the war. As a consequence, he sleeps about 4 hours a night, studies military history and doctrine continuously, and remains completely focused on his job. Early next year, he is slated to become the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, the senior military officer in NATO.
This has been a particularly volatile year for Gen Allen and the ISAF: burned Qurans; Marines desecrating Taliban corpses; and frequent vocal criticism from President Karzai and his government. I cannot imagine the pressure Gen Allen must feel. Incensed at the recent increase in Afghan insider killings, he recently responded, "We're willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign, but we're not willing to be murdered for it."
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