David D. McKiernan

Following his assignment as ground forces commander, McKiernan was assigned as Deputy Commanding General/Chief of Staff for United States Army Forces Command, the largest major command in the Army which is responsible for the readiness and deployment of army forces based in the United States. Then he assumed command of Seventh Army/United States Army Europe. He was then assigned to Afghanistan as Commander, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and United States Forces-Afghanistan from June 3, 2008, to June 15, 2009.

In a 2008 interview by Der Spiegel, McKiernan was asked whether Germany was a particularly difficult ally considering that its government requested limitations on its soldiers' deployment in Afghanistan, feeling that it might violate Germany's constitution if they were to conduct a targeted killing in the absence of a direct attack. McKiernan responded:

Prior to Afghanistan, McKiernan was Commanding General, United States Army, Europe and Seventh United States Army from December 14, 2005, to May 2, 2008. Before promotion to four-star rank, he served as Commanding General, Third United States Army and Coalition Forces Land Component Command from 2002 to 2004, where he commanded all allied ground forces during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and as Deputy Commanding General, United States Army Forces Command, the army's largest major command, from 2004 to 2005.

In their book, Cobra II, military historians Michael Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor suggest that McKiernan was unhappy to hear of the cancellation of the deployment of the 1st Cavalry Division, a 17,000-soldier force that was scheduled to arrive in Iraq as a follow-on reinforcement. Its deployment was cancelled on April 21, 2003, after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld raised the issue of whether it was needed. Previously, shortly before the war, McKiernan won Pentagon approval for a new war plan that increased the number of ground troops, calling the new war plan COBRA II.

In 2001, McKiernan was assigned as G3 (Operations), Headquarters, Department of the Army. Following that posting, in September 2002, General McKiernan assumed command of the Third United States Army and United States Army Forces Central Command, and became the Coalition Forces Land Component Commander for United States Central Command in preparation for Operation Iraqi Freedom. In March 2003, McKiernan led all coalition and United States conventional ground forces that attacked Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

Prior to these appointments McKiernan served in the VII Corps Headquarters during the Gulf War and then as the G3 in the 1st Cavalry Division (approx 1992-3) in the rank of lieutenant colonel. The first appointment was probably his first experience of working with other officers or formed units of other nationalities, in the second he had British Exchange Officers on his staff.

McKiernan gained experience in the Balkans as a staff officer in the 1990s. In July 1996, McKiernan joined the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, serving as the Deputy Chief of Staff G2/G3, forward deployed in both Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rheindahlen (Mönchengladbach), Germany. From August 1998 until September 1999, he served as Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, Headquarters, United States Army, Europe and Seventh Army during a period of simultaneous operations in Bosnia, Albania, and Kosovo.

McKiernan graduated from the College of William & Mary with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1972. He was commissioned from the Reserve Officers' Training Corps and entered active duty as an Armor officer. He holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Shippensburg University and an honorary doctorate in public service from William & Mary.

David D. McKiernan (born December 11, 1950) is a retired United States Army four-star general who served in Afghanistan as Commander, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). He served concurrently as Commander, United States Forces – Afghanistan (USFOR-A) from October 6, 2008, to June 15, 2009.