William B. Caldwell

The story reported that Caldwell had ordered a pyschological information unit be deployed to influence visiting U.S. lawmakers, including Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.). Targeting Americans, instead of foreigners, with psychological warfare, is illegal.

According to the magazine, the military unit, under pressure from Caldwell, provided backgrounders on the senators, and retaliated against a specific lieutenant colonel when he argued that the psych-ops unit was being misused. Lt. Col. Michael Holmes was ordered to comply with orders; but months later, the information operations push was ended.

Afghan Security Forces

In September 2009, Caldwell argued that the "cookie-cutter" approach to training Afghan forces wouldn't work.

Speaking to troops at Ft. Benning, Ga., Caldwell named three conditions for creating a stable Afghan security force: the force should be able to provide reasonable security; it should be founded on rule of law; and it should be sustainable.

He cautioned that U.S. troops should not attempt to "Americanize" their Afghan counterparts.

"As we establish training standards and conduct the training of foreign-security forces, we need to keep in mind that an American solution may not be culturally acceptable to the local population or any foreign culture," he said.

Caldwell said U.S. troops must build a trust-based relationship with their counterparts.

Deciding whether to share information, "don't ask yourself, should I do it, ask yourself why can't I do it?" Caldwell said. "As General (Stanley) McChrystal said in his guidance 'share the same battle rhythm and information, integrate them into your command and control structures. We must be prudent..but we also must realize the need to embrace the development of these forces."

Caldwell's main strategy for success with the Afghan National Army is not increasing its size, but creating good officers and leaders. Caldwell believes that having good officers will significantly decrease corruption. U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, who has worked with Caldwell, said: "Ten good police are better than 100 corrupt police, and 10 corrupt police can do more damage to our success than one Taliban extremist." Caldwell and his team will focus on the development of strong, loyal leaders, even though this will take some time.

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