An idiosyncratic general confronts opposition from enemies, allies, and bureaucrats while leading a massive rebuilding operation in Afghanistan.
A general from the U.S. is sent to Afghanistan to "clean" the situation up after eight years of war in the country. He finds himself among tired soldiers and disillusioned politicians eager to leave. In this situation, he feels his mission is to "win" the war, something deemed impossible by everyone around him.—anton-osgard
A tough general, hardened in his ways, knowledgeable about counterinsurgency operations, finds himself up against his own government and troops, confused about his own purpose, and without a clear plan of how to deal with the politics of "nation-building".
A general with prior experience is sent to Afghanistan with a mission shrouded in vagueness, nonexistent political support and a lack of confidence from the U.S. government. However, with the team of supporters and aides that surround him, a strategic "battle" plan is set into motion that is questionable by those who already believe there is no hope, and flawless by those that are closest to him.
Four-star General Glen McMahon (Brad Pitt) (a character based on General Stanley McChrystal. He is portrayed as an accomplished general with degrees from West Point and Yale brought in to bring a resolution to the conflict in Afghanistan) is sent to Afghanistan to bring the war to an end, but finds himself to be the one under attack. Glen was from a military family. He was a straight A student and a trouble maker all his life. His troops loved him as he never sent them where he wouldn't go himself. Prior to Afghanistan Glen was heading the secret forces in IRaq. Glen felt that the Afghan war was not being won as it was not being led. in Iraq he authored a book on leadership "One leg at a time"..
The first thing Glen tries is to get the military commanders of the 43 nations serving under his command to come out of their cabins and share common space.Colonel Cory Staggart (John Magaro) (an Army Ranger and General McMahon's executive officer). Major General Greg Pulver (Anthony Michael Hall) (ISAF Director of Intelligence, loosely based on Mike Flynn). Greg graduated in the same class as Glen from Westpoint and has worked with Glen ever since. USAF Tech Sgt. Andy Moon (RJ Cyler) (information technology support assistant), who fixed all gadgets for Glen. Lieutenant Commander Pete Duckman (Anthony Hayes) (a Navy SEAL and member of McMahon's staff), and nobody knew what exactly he did. USN Rear Admiral Simon Ball (Daniel Betts) (McMahon's Senior Public Affairs Officer). Matt Little (Topher Grace) (a former lobbyist turned McMahon's civilian media adviser). Sgt. Willy Dunne (Emory Cohen) (General McMahon's body man), Willy did Glen's clothes, Ironing and mundane stuff like that.
Pat McKinnon (Alan Ruck) (United States Ambassador to Afghanistan loosely based off Karl Eikenberry). Dick Waddle (Nicholas Jones) (loosely based off Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke) & Ray Canucci (Griffin Dunne) (a United States Department of State senior official).Glen meets Pat, Dick and Ray, who tell him give an assessment on what he needs to finish the war in Afghan but also cautiously instruct him not to ask for more troops. Glen has a general condescension of civilians who he thinks have not earned their power like he had. To Glen they were just obstacles in his path.
Glen next meets Afghan President Hamid Karzai (Ben Kingsley) and invites on his Afghan assessment tour. But Hamid feigns ill health to talk Glen out of it. Glen goes on a tour of Afghanistan and quickly figures that the war is not being won as its an insurgency (a war led by local people & not an army). So the US strategy has been counter insurgency (install a local government, provide security so that democracy can flourish, train the local forces, stimulate the local economy (which is heroin basically), build the local infra (schools, hospitals and stuff like that), Nation building, hearts and minds).
The top British commander in charge of Helmand province tells Glen that the whole province is owned by Taliban and the coalition only secures the base there. He advises Glen to cut Helmand loose and concentrate on provinces where there is some support for their mission.Counter insurgency has been a failure everywhere (Vietnam, British empire and so on) as you cant build a nation at gunpoint. But Glen believed it hadn't been done as it hadn't been done right. His strategy is to take Helmand and Kandahar, precisely as everyone thinks Americans cant have it. He asks for 40,000 additional troops which makes Dick furious. He request is eventually turned down by US Secretary of State (based on Hillary Clinton). He is asked to wait till the Afghan elections are over. Till then his orders are SNORPP (Systemic Negation Of Repetitive Procedural Practice).
Glen meets with a group of marines on their way back from R&R in Italy. They are all tired and listless. Sgt. Ricky Ortega (Will Poulter) is the squad leader and Cpl. Billy Cole (Keith Stanfield) is a disillusioned Marine. Billy grills Glen on how the marines can be winning hearts and minds of civilians when he knows every 10th one of them is trying to kill him. He does not understand Glen's policy of medals for "Courageous Restraint" which is Glen's way of reminding marines that they are here to protect the civilians.On the day of the Afghan elections Captain Badi Basim (Aymen Hamdouchi) joins the team. Badi is a scholarly Afghan National Army officer who becomes General McMahon's Aide-De-Camp. Dick & pat inform Glen that the elections had widespread reports of graft and hence would need to be re-done. Glen is furious. He leaks his assessment report to the media and gives a 60 minutes interview saying that he has spoken to the President just once since taking charge of the forces in Afghanistan 70 days ago.
President Obama (Reggie Brown) authorizes a 30,000 unit troop surge in response, but with a expiry period of just 18 months. Glen is again furious as this basically means that the Taliban can simply wait out 18 months and then retake the country when the troop surge goes back down.Since the troop surge is not enough, Glen travels through Europe trying to get the rest of the coalition to increase their troop commitments. In Paris, he meets his wife Jeanie McMahon (Meg Tilly), spending an awkward morning with her.The next morning Glen is invited to a meeting with Obama on-board air force one. Glen has to reschedule his entire day to be able to meet the president, only to see the President snub him and not taking him on-board Air force one.
The french agree to give Glen the extra troops but warn that Germans may be inclined to withdraw altogether. Sean Cullen (Scoot McNairy) (a cynical journalist for Rolling Stone who accompanies McMahon and his staff and acts as narrator throughout the film, loosely based on author Michael Hastings). Sean is assigned to cover Glen in all his official appearances.
Due to the volcano eruption in Greenland, Glen and his entourage has to travel to Berlin by road. In Berlin a German Politician (Tilda Swinton) relentlessly drives home the point that Glen's troop surge is driven by his own personal ambition to leave his own legacy in the war theatre in Afghanistan. In fact, the real reason for the war, the Al-Qaeda was not mentioned by Glen even once for the troop surge. She says to Glen that her job is to make sure that Glen's personal ambition does not carry a huge cost for everyone else. Glen is shaken to the core by this. Germany agrees to the troop surge, but says that they wont leave the base.
The surge starts and with that Glen attacks Helmand province. The Italy R&R platoon is the first back on ground leading the offensive. The unit comes under attack but Billy realizes it was only a family that was retaliating when their unit's stray grenade killed their little girl. Once the town is secure, Glen comes to speak to the town elders. He speaks to them about his vision of roads, schools and jobs. But the Pashtuns tell Glen that when the Americans leave the Taliban will simply move back and asks them to leave now.
Admist all this, Sean Cullen's article comes out that describes Glen and his entourage as shit talking the President and the Vice President and having drunken parties all over Europe instead of fighting the war. Glen knows he is finished. He is recalled to Washington and fired by ObamaGlen's replacement is General Bob White (Russell Crowe) (similar to David Petraeus)
