McChrystal’s out; now for Obama’s test
Removing outspoken Gen. Stanley McChrystal as commander of the war in Afghanistan, and replacing him with his boss, Gen. David Petraeus, is a quintessential Barack Obama move: It’s an attempt to placate both those people who said McChrystal had to go after Rolling Stone magazine published his disdainful comments about the president’s team and those people who said the war was at too crucial a juncture to make such a change.
The president’s statement that his decision was about neither policy disagreement nor personal insult underscores this sense. If it’s not about p0licy or personalities, why the change? Was the president really already on the cusp of making such a jarring change before the article came out?
By turning to Petraeus, who was McChrystal’s boss at U.S. Central Command and who successfully executed a counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy in Iraq and will now try to continue one in Afghanistan, Obama can argue that he’s keeping as much stability and continuity as possible while closing the book on an often-testy relationship between president and general.
Maybe it will work. For the sake of the soldiers still over there, we should all pray that it does.
I fear, however, that this is the beginning of a Washington consensus that the war has failed and it’s the military’s fault.
Until now, the left has pilloried George Bush for ignoring Afghanistan. The right has gone relatively easy on Obama when it comes to Afghanistan, although there has been plenty of criticism that Obama dallied in settling on a strategy in that war, erred in setting a July 2011 deadline for winding it down, has not been visible as disputes among his various representatives there boiled over (this last bit, not personal attacks on the president and vice president, makes up a large part of what the bulk of the Rolling Stone article actually detailed).
There will be a temptation now, I’m afraid, to blame McChrystal’s loose lips for dooming this war. The magazine article also highlighted discontent with the general among some soldiers in Afghanistan; the COIN strategy would have worked, we’ll hear from some quarters, if McChrystal hadn’t been such a hard head, an egomaniac, an envelope-pusher, a ______.
Never mind that the ultimate goal has been vague, the political support tentative, the attention paid to it (under Obama as well as Bush, by the public as well as politicians) sporadic.
I hope I’m completely wrong about all of this, that Petraeus comes in, kills more bad guys, identifies more good guys and empowers them — and that Obama does what is necessary on his end to ensure Petraeus’s success. Because if my fears come true, that’s when we truly will have landed back in Vietnam.
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193 comments Add your comment
Jefferson
June 23rd, 2010
4:47 pm
Tic tac toe
Ragnar Danneskjöld
June 23rd, 2010
4:48 pm
Dear Stan @ 4:38, with all due respect the NYT extract does not affirm “Libby leaked her to the Washington Post her being an undercover CIA Op” which was your earlier libel. No, he was convicted of giving a different story to the FBI than did Tim Russert.
Dear Mom @ 4:41, thanks, my son affirms he is having a great time, that he was born to do his job. I mostly agree with your post except to the extent you affirm that it is McChrystal’s plan that is “not working.” McChrystal told Chauncey last summer he need 50% more troops than the Great Ditherer was willing to give him; the more accurate representation is that Chauncey’s halfassed support for McChrystal’s plan is having a measurable effect. However, given that lack of support, you may be right, and it may be time to give it up, or perhaps to turn the high desert into glass.
Algonquin j. Calhoun
June 23rd, 2010
4:49 pm
Raggie, you are the one who is mistaken. Both generals had the temerity and unmitigated gall to assume they could insult, question, denigrate and humiliate the president of the United States. It’s not going to happen! Stan is of questionable character and that was known before he got drunk and ran off to rolling Stone. He was involved in covering up how Pat Tillman really died and he was connected to the abuse of detainees in Afghanistan. The fool, like MacArthur, thought himself to be above his Commander-in Chief and he damn sure isn’t!
Will
June 23rd, 2010
4:51 pm
Other than republican newspaper writers and republican radio and tv entertainers whose only priority is to disagree with the President, I am grateful that even most republican politicians seem to understand the importance of the Change of Command in the military and understand that the President is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. It is never in the best interest of the country for military leaders to question the leadership of the Commander in Chief.
The military is not a democracy nor a popularity contest. There must be obedience to the Chain of Command.
May I share a story from my military career. In 1972, one of the officers in my Company at Fort Jackson, SC had an “Impeach Nixon” sticker on his car. He was told to remove the sticker and most in the office disagreed with this. The commanding officer explained that President Nixon was also Commander in Chief Nixon and, regardless of anyone’s feelings about the political Nixon, there could be no disagreement with the Commander in Chief Nixon.
Stan
June 23rd, 2010
4:51 pm
And Ragnar…you honestly think he did not? People say that OJ did kill his wife even though he was found not guilty….yet 90% of Americans accuse him of the crime….are you the libel police in that situation….I would be surprised if you had the guts to admit it
Algonquin j. Calhoun
June 23rd, 2010
4:53 pm
turn the high desert into glass.
Our cars won’t run on glass!
Ragnar Danneskjöld
June 23rd, 2010
4:55 pm
Dear Stan @ various times, I always thought the funniest element of the whole Plame affair was that Joseph Wilson’s sloppy report – disclaiming any evidence of Iraqi shopping for “yellowcake” in Niger -actually confirmed that Iraq was shopping for yellowcake. He verified, with the President of Niger, that Iraq was on a trade mission to Niger, but wrote that the Niger President affirmed that the Iraqis were not shopping for yellowcake. Every rational CIA analyst then looked up Niger’s exports, and discovered that Niger exports nothing else.
Last Word
June 23rd, 2010
4:56 pm
Stan:
“. . . America actually got pissed off at him enough to elect an African American president . . .”
Careful there, son, you are treading on thin ice.
Big D
June 23rd, 2010
4:57 pm
Last word, Stan, it must be painful to be so uninformed and blind. Clinton bombed IRAQ and then made the statement that there were WMD there as one of the reasons he bombed them. Is that clear enough or do I have to find you a source that you find acceptable for a liberal to read.
Last Word
June 23rd, 2010
5:01 pm
Big D:
Clinton bombed Iraq after Bush41 left the Kurds swinging in the wind after his contribution to the military industrial complex (does anyone see a pattern here?) and Saddam used chemical weapons on innocent women & children.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
June 23rd, 2010
5:03 pm
Dear Stan @ 4:51, now that we have swerved into another side issue, I’ll have to admit that I am the only person in the country who watched nothing of the OJ coverage, but I subsequently heard a great and plausible theory explaining the motive of another. I laid it out on Wooten’s blog three years ago, and of course all of the leftists railed against me for affirming the possibility that OJ really was innocent (mostly as the theory is rooted in the theory that the homosexual waiter was the real target, of a male lover’s rage.)
Dear Algonquin @ 4:40, perhaps we can agree to avoid “denigrate” when discussing the current regime – “disparage” serves the same purpose without the potentially offensive root. Of course, there was no such disparagement by McChrystal in the Rolling Stone article. He expressed disagreement with Holbrooke – and an aide added a comment about the nature of the communique – and he acknowledged past disagreement with the vice president. Hardly the stuff of “insult” or “humiliation” of the President, except to the extent that Chauncey’s runaway ego may be asserting, “love me, love my dog.”
John
June 23rd, 2010
5:04 pm
Mr. Obama is President of the United States, his “test” started the day he was elected and will end when he leaves office.
Big D
June 23rd, 2010
5:05 pm
LW, I don’t know enough about the Kurd situation to comment, but Clinton bombed Iraq in response to other things Saddam did. He is the one who coined the term for them.
Big D
June 23rd, 2010
5:07 pm
LW, it was called “operation desert fox” read about it. P.S. we brought the stored “yellow cake” back to Canada…AAMOF.
Algonquin j. Calhoun
June 23rd, 2010
5:09 pm
Little D,
you are just angry that your president was so freaking dumb…and bad….that America actually got pissed off at him enough to elect an African American president…something that I did not think I would see in my lifetime.
I support President Obama completely and I think he’s doing a great job, especially, when you consider the utter mess left behind by his dullard predecessor. Sadly though, you’re correct about the color aspect of things. The Republinazis have called him liberal, socialist, communist, foreign by birth and so many other things. They haven’t the guts to call him what they really want to!
America
June 23rd, 2010
5:10 pm
The anointed one: “Now is the time for all of us to come together.”
America to POTUS: Yeah, like you and your lackeys have been engaged in that so far. We’ve got some news for you: we are coming together. You’ll get the full memo in November. You have our word on it. We saw Biden standing at the podium. Did say, “This is f_ _ king huge?” Oh, BTW, we caught Rahm lying. His lips were moving. Fire him too.
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 23rd, 2010
5:15 pm
Obama’s tests:
Economy: Failed
Oil Spill: Failed
Gitmo: Failed
Debt: Failed
Algonquin j. Calhoun
June 23rd, 2010
5:18 pm
Ragghead, it wasn’t just the general who was quoted. His minions denigrated the President, Vice-President and others, as did the fired general. The general has freedom of speech as we all do but like the rest of us, that freedom ends when you say too much.
Dear Algonquin @ 4:40, perhaps we can agree to avoid “denigrate” when discussing the current regime – “disparage” serves the same purpose without the potentially offensive root.
Your reference to the “N” word is not lost on me. Now we’re getting to the real reason you despise the president of the United States!
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 23rd, 2010
5:18 pm
“you are just angry that your president was so freaking dumb”
Yes, Obama is dumb.
“I support President Obama completely and I think he’s doing a great job”
You are in the minority, ma’am.
“The Republinazis have called him liberal, socialist, communist, foreign by birth and so many other things.”
Not one Republican has killed a Jew.
“They haven’t the guts to call him what they really want to!”
I do
Obama is: Stupid, naive, childish, inexperienced, goofy, child-like, buffoonish, unpopular…….
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 23rd, 2010
5:19 pm
“Ragghead”
Funny, left wing retards were calling Republicans racist in SC for calling Halley a raghead and here we have a left wing retard calling someone a raghead.
Stupid describes Cowhoun to a T.
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 23rd, 2010
5:20 pm
“Your reference to the “N” word is not lost on me.”
No one referenced the N word but you, ma’am.
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 23rd, 2010
5:22 pm
“Careful there, son, you are treading on thin ice.”
Oh no, a left winger is sending out a warning! Oh, she may call you a racist or a nazi.
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 23rd, 2010
5:25 pm
Jindal 1 Obama 0
Obama, Jindal and True Leadership
Then again, Obama’s experience in administering anything is nil. He says he managed his campaign, but presidential candidates do not manage their campaigns except perhaps to say “yes” or “no” occasionally. Otherwise, he was a community organizer, a part-time lawyer, a university lecturer, a state senator and a U.S. senator who chiefly ran for president while holding that office.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/06/23/obama_jindal_and_true_leadership_106068.html
Peter
June 23rd, 2010
5:39 pm
gosh this guy…….”Obama has the IQ of dung”……say something of meaning……anything please………show some semblance of intelligence !
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 23rd, 2010
5:44 pm
“say something of meaning……anything please………show some semblance of intelligence !”
Ok, sucks to be you. There, that was easy.
John
June 23rd, 2010
5:54 pm
ART. 88. CONTEMPT TOWARD OFFICIALS
Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
That’s why McChrystal is no longer in charge.
Peter
June 23rd, 2010
5:57 pm
Hey Obama has the IQ of dung ……… do you ever go to church on Sunday’s, or are you typically too hung over for that ?
Peter
June 23rd, 2010
6:02 pm
Gee John, that was easy…..now can Kyle and the rest of the Republican’s here get it ?
Kyle Wingfield
June 23rd, 2010
6:12 pm
“…shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”
When was the court-martial held? And what was the verdict/sentence?
Peter
June 23rd, 2010
6:16 pm
Kyle………. do you want a Court Martial as well…..and not just let it go as it is ?
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 23rd, 2010
6:20 pm
“do you ever go to church on Sunday’s, or are you typically too hung over for that ?”
Peter, interesting. You’re named after someone who denied Christ 3 times.
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 23rd, 2010
6:21 pm
Peter……do you always ask asinine questions?
Peter
June 23rd, 2010
6:22 pm
Hey Obama has the IQ of dung….can’t answer the simple question ?
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 23rd, 2010
6:25 pm
“can’t answer the simple question ?”
I don’t answer questions from people who act like Pharisees.
joan1
June 23rd, 2010
6:29 pm
Hey you Bush bashers. Get with the drill. it is now almost two years later. Aren’t you every going to require little Barry to stand up and take it like a man? I have no brief for Bush either, but he wasn’t taking us down the road to socialism, granting amnesty, forcing healthcare “deform” up out bums, burning through money like there was no tomorrow. We are multiples in debt now from where we were at the end of the Bush era. All on your buddy Obama’s head.
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 23rd, 2010
6:30 pm
“do you ever go to church on Sunday’s, or are you typically too hung over for that ?”
I’m guessing that you’re Catholic.
Algonquin j. Calhoun
June 23rd, 2010
6:30 pm
Dung, you have an IQ of 2 below plant life. You are a complete moron Republinazi. Please don’t further foul the gene pool you idiot.
Peter
June 23rd, 2010
6:31 pm
HA HA HA joan1…..funny stuff …….. the country implodes, and you want the quick fix, and forget who got us there ?
Peter
June 23rd, 2010
6:33 pm
OK….Obama has the IQ of dung……too hung over….. never learned much about being a Christian is evident.
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 23rd, 2010
6:36 pm
“Dung, you have an IQ of 2 below plant life.”
Nice comeback Kathy Griffin.
“You are a complete moron Republinazi.”
And you’re a DNCklanner, retard.
“Please don’t further foul the gene pool you idiot.”
Whatever you say you inbred trailer trash troglodyte.
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 23rd, 2010
6:38 pm
“too hung over….. never learned much about being a Christian is evident.”
Hypocrite much?
Algonquin j. Calhoun
June 23rd, 2010
6:46 pm
Kyle, the poster was referring to the military code of justice and he’s correct in that the general could have been charged under that article. However, the president chose to fire him and be done with it. Insubordination is not tolerated in the military. It results in punishment of one sort or another. For the general it was losing his command.
Sandra
June 23rd, 2010
6:53 pm
Kyle,
I’m not even sure why you wrote this article other than to further criticize President Obama. McChrystal did what he did and paid for it as he should. It’s about the military standards and chain-of-command. It has nothing to do with thin skin or anything else. If he had done the same thing while Bush was president, you can bet he would have been gone immediately (probably after his first gaffe!). Of course, THEN it would have not been an issue.
Can you spell “hyprocisy”?
No More Progressives!
June 23rd, 2010
6:59 pm
Stop It
June 23rd, 2010
2:57 pm
Did he not turn in his resignation? Apaprently he did not want to be there. Some people are making this out to be more than what it is. No matter if you are to the left and right, NO one should disresepct the commander in chief-PERIOD !
That’s funny. When GWB was pilloried on a daily basis, the left told us daily that dissent is a large part of patriotism.
Respect is earned, not demanded. An empty suit community organizer with a half-page resume needs to listen more and talk less.
No More Progressives!
June 23rd, 2010
7:07 pm
Big D’s Proctologist
June 23rd, 2010
3:56 pm
Big D, take your small p&nis and small brain and go home to your rented trailer park. For you to refer to the President as a “mutt”, just goes to show that your “opinion” has nothing to do with policy, politics, etc., but everything to do with his race.
Pray tell, Doctor: what is King Barry’s race?
Algonquin j. Calhoun
June 23rd, 2010
7:14 pm
Dung, you are an imbecile and a racist imbecile at that. Your posts, understandably, are viewed a nothing more than the ramblings of an idiot. That’s as it should be. I’m willing to bet you have sex with farm animals and expose your pitifully small ‘little Elvis’ to small children and elderly women. Shut up douche bag!
Alvin Greene for Senate in SC
June 23rd, 2010
7:15 pm
General Petraeus will want to win. He will request an Afghan surge. Just like Iraq.
Obama’s plan to leave by next summer is vaporized.
The oil is leaking really bad today.
Ughhhh.. Terry Bradshaw for POTUS.
Hurricane Petraeus
June 23rd, 2010
7:18 pm
“Hey baby…. Have I got sumthin for you….”
Hurricane Obama
June 23rd, 2010
7:19 pm
“Yeah dawg…. Turn up the jacuzzi…….”
Red November
June 23rd, 2010
8:50 pm
Anyone else notice that the liberal Obamabot care takers in the main stream media and on blogs don’t bring up much that McChrystal voted for the Obamanation? I want to feel bad for a career military officer, but the fact that he voted for a clueless incompetent Chicago crony community organizer for his Commander In Chief throws any sympathy out the window. He should have known better doing that as he should have known better interviewing the a liberal hippy rag like the Rolling Stone. Now it’s just a countdown to the book deal lambasting the incompetence of the Obama administration. Can’t wait! Oh, and who is the replacement? The same guy the liberal dimwits snidely called “Betrayous” a few years ago under Bush.
By the way, speaking of incompetence, what’s up with the Teleprompter In Chief wearing shorts playing golf, something he’s done MORE in just one year than the entire first FOUR YEARS of the Bush administration that liberal dimwits whined about? Uh huh.
Finally, to quickly change the subject for a moment, let me make sure I understand this correctly: earlier this year, George Soros – one of the Teleprompter In Chief’s handlers – buys $900M worth of the Brazilian State owned oil company, Petrobras. Then the Teleprompter Administration sends $2B (yeah, that’s a B) of our tax dollars to Brazil, intended for oil exploration (Brazil intends to drill twice as deep as the Horizon well). How come CNN, PMSNBC, and the New York Slimes and other liberal media outlets that put this guy on a pedestal in the first place as a presidential candidate aren’t investigating things like this?