To echo the Snail and bankley - McChrystall was the NATO Commander in Afghanistan and so this affects all the different countries on the ground there.

the view from BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson

who reports

"The problem is that the reasons for Gen McChrystal's irritation with Washington have not gone away.

There is a clear lack of decision about the way the war should be fought, and about whether and how there should be negotiations with the Taliban.

On Monday, this indecision cost the job of the most senior British diplomat in charge of Afghanistan"


From Jon Boone who elected to remain in Afghanistan as a freelance journalist after the FR withdrew it's journalists on safety grounds -

'Britain's special envoy to Afghanistan, known for his scepticism about the western war effort and his support for peace talks with the Taliban, has stepped down just a month before a critical international conference in Kabul.

Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles has taken "extended leave", a spokesman for the British high commission in Islamabad said on Monday

Cowper-Coles, who also had Pakistan in his remit as special envoy, clashed in recent months with senior Nato and US officials over his insistence that the military-driven counter-insurgency effort was headed for failure, and that talks with the Taliban should be prioritised'