printBHO ought to accept General Stanley McChrystal’s resignation. He must. If he doesn’t, the president will be in even more trouble than he already is.
The US commander in Afghanistan was ordered to fly back from Kabul for a carpeting after he and his aides were quoted in “Rolling Stone” magazine mocking the president and senior officials. … Although the worst barbs came from the lips of aides, they indicated that the general did not respect Mr Obama. One was quoted as saying Mr Obama appeared “uncomfortable and intimidated” by the military and “didn’t seem very engaged” when he first met Gen McChrystal.
What is it about the American memory? It’s non-existent.
What is it about the Neocons-cum-Republicans? They have no core principles other than to line up behind their man and against Obama. They cheered this McChrystal chap when, in October of 2009, he sojourned to London to lobby for more troops.
At the time I wrote that, “It’s got to be obvious that the general knows nothing about the chain of command. He lacks discipline or a code of conduct. McChrystal’s a lobbyist in fatigues, guarding his fiefdom.”
As is my habit—it hasn’t rubbed off on our valued blogger James Huggins, who carries the torch for GOP fraudsters—I reminded my readers at the time that “Gen. David Petraeus conducted himself similarly. Although he didn’t lobby abroad for his cause, Petraeus assumed a decidedly political role. However, back then, Republicans and their Bush boy were on board with Petraeus’ push for more war.
The difference between Petraeus and McChrystal is that the first was successful in establishing the illusion of a successful surge in Iraq—quite a feat given that the Democrats were not yet in power. So useless is this McChrystal that he has not even been able to win the PR war, and persuade the ruling Obamamaniacs that his war wank is working.
It goes without saying that both O’Reilly and Hannity have already dictated received Republican opinion: BHO must forgive McChrystal and let this loser win their war. (And BHO’s war)
UPDATE I: “I think it’s clear that the article in which he and his team appeared showed a poor — showed poor judgment,” the president said in his first comments on the matter, surrounded by members of his Cabinet at the close of their meeting. “But I also want to make sure that I talk to him directly before I make any final decisions.”
UPDATE II (June 23): “The Runaway General: Stanley McChrystal, Obama’s top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House.”
That’s the title of the Rolling Stone article. What would a crappy Stone feature be without the expletives? So raw and real. The cussing is all the “writer’s” repertoire; he’s not even parroting the army men, whom you’d expect to cuss. Clearly a requirement of a job with RS. Imbibe from the masters: “Fuck this; fuck that, be shit-faced, piss-off.”
McChrystal is molding the military into a cross between the “Green Berets” and an “armed Peace Corps”—killing tempered by nation building—with a view to carving out a permanent place for himself over there, and taking his showcase war on the road, when the gig is up.
The guy is as evil as he looks. Not as stupid as McMussolini, who finished 894th out of 899 at the Naval Academy and lost five jets, but a serious underachiever, “ranking 298 out of a class of 855.”
This man McChrystal is a riot of fuck-ups to use Rolling Stone lingo. Hey, this is easy. I think I’ve got it, Enry Iggins.
UPDATE III (June 23): CHRIS HAS AN EPISODE. This is the second momentous time Chris Matthews felt an-Obama induced thrill up his leg. Although Chris spends his days in sexual delirium over BHO, like in a boy who reaches maturity, the thrill manifests only on very special occasions. Emasculated left-liberals don’t often allow themselves to revel in the masculine—it represents oppression. But when an all-round good guy like the president shows a bit of that manly magic, “girlie boys” get giddy.
Obama sacking Stanley: now that was a good day for Chris, who managed to disguise arousal with folderol about the act instantiating the genius of the Constitution; the beauty of our country’s landscape, blah, blah.
Here’s the wreck himself:
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What would be worse for McChrystal; having BHO accept his resignation thus ending his career, or BHO keeping him on to be the Westmoreland of Afghanistan?
It’s always a bad sign when Ilana Mercer cusses.
Not as stupid as McMussolini, who finished 894th out of 899 at the Naval Academy and lost five jets, but a serious underachiever, “ranking 298 out of a class of 855.”
The Academies no longer have the prestige they once did. McChrystal got the job because he’s got his Ranger and Special Forces tabs, and those guys rule the roost these days. The little fabric tabs on the shoulder and jump wings on the chest have replaced the West Point ring in a lot of ways.
Incidentally, the blue badge McChrystal wears above his ribbons is the Expert Infantryman Badge, which is given upon completion of a field course. If he’d been to war that badge would have a wreath around it (the Combat Infantryman Badge that you see in all the Vietnam movies). The good general has seen no combat.
McCrystal isn’t stupid. He didn’t pick Rolling Stone by accident. I believe he is picking a fight with BHO even though he knows he can’t win. I believe he wants to get the whole mess into the open. How this is or is not going to work awaits today’s confrontation.
I realize my initial comments are a bit off topic but, I think it is an important point. I read an interesting piece by Caroline Glick about Gen. Patraeus command and the territory it covers. It includes the entire Middle East, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc, except Israel. So by design CentCOM (right acronym?) is going to have a more Arab/Eastern Middle east view of things. Israel becomes to be seen as a problem to these guys because they only deal with the mostly Muslim view of the world. This is not good for the United States or Israel.
Althought politics are going to be involved in being a 4-star general, they should be played behind the scenes. Regardless of what McChyrstal said, the idea of having a Rolling Stone writer having the kind of access to the general and his staff is irresponsible.
Politicing in public is not the way military Generals should behave. Yes being a General in the military is unfortunately a political job as well as one of military leadership. However, questioning the Commander in Chief, and other policy advisors should be done in private. Once a critical decision is made as a General you have two choices 1) salute smartly and follow orders, or 2) resign and try to effect policy decisions from a position outside the Military. One point of clarification: if you are being ordered to do something illegal or unethical by all means object but, don’t do it via a free lance Rolling Stone reporter, or a New York Time reproter for that matter, while on duty!
, “It’s got to be obvious that the general knows nothing about the chain of command. He lacks discipline or a code of conduct. McChrystal’s a lobbyist in fatigues, guarding his fiefdom.”
What is even more revealing is that Ilana Mercer noticed this simple fact while so many Americans did not. Now the General must offer his resignation and the President must accept it. The next guy needs to declare victory and recommend to the President that we get the hell out of Afghnaistan having accomplished the mission of scaring the hell out of cave dwellers,having established an unstable government of drug lords in Afghanistan more favorable to US demands than the old taliban and having destablized the only country in the region with nuclear weapons — Pakistan. Thank you duopoly for jobs well done.
Everyone in the top echelon of the military is a political animal of some sort. They kiss a.. until they can’t take it anymore, then they mouth off and get removed. There is little love for any politician by those in the military, which means there is little love for the top echelon of the military who are politicians in uniform.
Truman sacked the immensely popular MacArthur after the latter had publicly criticized the President for refusing American air strikes against China during the Korean War. http://www.answers.com/topic/truman-macarthur-controversy McChrystal is insubordinate; this should be a “no-brainer” on Obama’s part.
Because much of the publicized opposition to the Afghan war consists of transgendered atheistic abortionists with green hair who denounce anything American and praise any foreign dictator, many on the “knee-jerk” right feel obligated to support this idiotic remake of Vietnam no matter what happens.
Some conservatives like George Will, Tony Blankley, Diana West, and Jack Kelly have come to realize that this pansy nation-building in Corruptistan is hopeless. The rest of the rightists just wallow in partisan pointsmanship while Marines come back with PTSD. As for Stanley McWestmoreland, Hamid Diem, Lyndon Bush, Milhous Obama, Creighton Patraeus, and Henry Cabot Holbrooke – just characters in a dreadful remake of a bad movie.
Remember Vietnam?? To keep the Northern Stalinists from killing 200,000 Southerners, the US prolonged a Civil War and spread it to Cambodia at the price of over 4 million dead, millions maimed, millions with mental problems, families split up, money and lives wasted, and crops destroyed. And the Stalinists killed their 200,000 anyway. And at home, the FREEDOM we got entailed: deficits, drug addicts, inflation, wage-and-price controls, the end of the Gold Standard, Watergate, and Jimmy Carter.
What price Afghanistan! Dumber even than Vietnam!
Even in private sector employment, if you badmouth the big boss and he finds out, you’ll get the ax. Well, you will if you’re a white boy, anyway.