McChrystal kerfuffle brings to mind @allahpundit‘s classic Obama-channeling tweet: “Let me be clear: Pack your shit.” http://is.gd/cZiEM
McChrystal kerfuffle brings to mind @allahpundit‘s classic Obama-channeling tweet: “Let me be clear: Pack your shit.” http://is.gd/cZiEM
Pretty dumb story. If McChrystal really is fed up with the administration, the right thing to do would’ve been to resign and tell the administration to GFY, then let the minutes of that meeting leak to the press. But whining to the press in a Rolling Stone article (of all mags, you picked that one?), then apologizing and throwing yourself at the mercy of the court to keep your job? Lame. Whatever merit there was to his complaints (and I’m sure there was quite a bit), he completely undermined himself and everyone else who felt Obama was bumbling in Afghanistan due to inexperience, arrogance, and a lack of commitment.
Also, this.
After the Rolling Stone interview and subsequent apology by the General, it’s no wonder that America hasn’t won a war in 50 years. Hopefully, this little bitch General gets tossed out and someone competent put in with a strategy to win rather than keep 100k+ Americans in a loser country like Afghanishit indefinitely. Obama’s biggest problem is he still wants to work with dumbass Republicans. Obama would be better off following the advice of Joe Biden. Oh yes he’s a moron, but much smarter than the smartest Republican.
Sandy, maybe you missed the part that McChrystal voted for Obama, and was selected by Obama because of his successful counterinsurgency tactics in Iraq, but then Obama refused to grant McChrystal the resources he requested to do his job while simultaneously placing two naysayers in his path (Eikenberry and Holbrooke) for every decision. There’s a lot not to like about l’affaire McChrystal, but chief among those is Obama’s abject failure at being a competent commander-in-chief.
it’s no wonder that America hasn’t won a war in 50 years.
Last time I checked, we won Desert Storm, and now we are successfully winding down our involvement in Iraq because of Bush’s successful surge strategy. Do you intentionally try to make yourself sound ignorant and stupid or can you just not help yourself?
Andrew, I gotta admit, that piece you linked in #3 sounds pretty plausible to me. I,e,, Rings True.
Of course tension between the Military command and the civilian High command is inherent in the constitutional structure. Presidents of widely-varying backgrounds, temperaments, and Worldviews have struggled mightily with it, and not all that successfully.
Lincoln, evidently a proto-geek, used to sometimes sleep in the Telegraph Office, the better to follow the battlefield action and transmit tactical commands to his generals, driving them to Distraction. (I know this is true cuz I seen it on the History Channel. ;} Imagine if Gen. McClellan had given interviews to Rolling Stone. :> Then again, the great President’s greatest General, U.S. Grant, didn’t make all that great a President himself.
As for JFK and Nixon, let me sum up by quoting Pat Buchanan (also as Seen on my Tee Vee ): “The lesson of Watergate was, never send in Cubans without Air cover.” :]
Actually, at present I feel a bit of the sentiment expressed by a circa-1961 GOP lapel button in my Memento collection: “I miss Ike. (Hell, I even miss Harry.”) ;>
AML, You’re willfully ignorant. Obama backed McChrystal’s policy, Obama put 47,000 additional troops into Afghanistan in 2009 (17,000 in February 2009, and 30,000 in December 2009). Please. You’re so full of crap it’s running out your shoes. Get informed. Of course you have to work with people that have different views than you in life, it’s called life, if you had one you’d know. The only authority above McChrystal was the President and he did nothing to stand in the way of his management of the War. It’s obvious McChrystal had a 10 year (more) plan in Afghanistan, while every sensible person would like to be done with this waste of time and money ASAP.
I disagree with Obama’s prosecution of the war in Afghanistan, he should have just dropped it and brought everyone home January 21, 2009. Instead he wants to appeal to the ignorant/republicans.