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
VEB
June 23rd, 2010
9:19 pm
Jimmy Carter must be thrilled. He’s now the second worst President this nation has ever seen
IraqAnyone?
June 23rd, 2010
9:25 pm
What’s the deal in Iraq? Not much action. No sky is falling Kyle? What gives?
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 23rd, 2010
11:28 pm
“you are an imbecile and a racist imbecile at that. ”
Oh yeah, well you’re a doo doo head and a nazi. Moron.
“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!”
Cowhoun, I’m so sorry you were anal raped in prison. It must truly suck to know that gangs bent you over their bunk beds night after night.
Oh, and make me shut up, retard.
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 23rd, 2010
11:30 pm
Gotta suck for people like Cowhoun and Sandra.
Confidence Waning in Obama, U.S. Outlook
Americans are more pessimistic about the state of the country and less confident in President Barack Obama’s leadership than at any point since Mr. Obama entered the White House, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703900004575325263274951230.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories
AlGore the rapist
June 23rd, 2010
11:32 pm
Prosecutor: Al Gore was focus of sex crime inquiry in Portland
The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office confirmed today that a woman who alleged unwanted sexual contact by Al Gore reported it to police in 2006, and the prosecutor’s office was briefed by the Portland Police Bureau in late 2006 and January 2007.
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/06/prosecutor_al_gore_was_focus_o.html
DEWSTARPATH
June 24th, 2010
5:56 am
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!
- Algonquin: “Dung” is actually Bob LobLAw jumping to ANOTHER handle.
That same adolescent insult was used against me in Wooten’s blog.
MikeB
June 24th, 2010
7:41 am
The military needs to have a clear mission in AFG and by default Pakistan, that “they” understand….
Making it all public is information the enemy can use, whoever the enemy is on that given day (Osama, the Taliban, AFG warlords/drugrunners, ect,….)
I would like to bring the troops home as well, but if this is done too soon, the Pakistani Nuclear arsenal will be exposed…….. Boots on the ground are keeping the people who want those weapons occupied and on the defensive……. Removing the threat of U.S. Forces from the area will most certainly create a threat and cause activities, that will cost much more than we are spending there now…..
Think critically about this…….
No More Progressives!
June 24th, 2010
7:50 am
AlGore the rapist
June 23rd, 2010
11:32 pm
Prosecutor: Al Gore was focus of sex crime inquiry in Portland
Boy, ole Al has been busy, inventing the internet & getting massages and all…………
He would have made a great…….something.
Communist AJC
June 24th, 2010
8:10 am
“That same adolescent insult was used against me in Wooten’s blog.”
Dewstar, you of all people should be talking. I took a look at Wootens blog and low and behold you wrote “LA BOB BLOWs goats”.
Cowhoun wrote: 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!
Both of you gals have low IQs. And you over here trying to play the victim card all while spewing trash on other blogs.
Go sell stupid somewhere else.
hotlanta
June 24th, 2010
8:26 am
Are you being TESTED each day that you come to work? Where was all of this daily rating systems during the other President’s term. Oh I forgot when a black person gets the job the rules change. If I listen the polls it would really be gloom and doom. I still say has anyone noticed besides me that the Republicans are not WORKING they are campaigning for November and 2012 which is 2 years away. They get up everyday and say “GOTCHA”.
Fix-It
June 24th, 2010
9:03 am
Bring ALL of our troops home from EVERY WHERE and put them on our borders. Our federal government has the responsibility to secure our borders and if they don’t they are breaking the law.
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 24th, 2010
9:08 am
“That same adolescent insult was used against me in Wooten’s blog.”
Dew, prove it.
Larry
June 24th, 2010
9:09 am
Don’t disagree with the move, just the typical grandstanding way he went about it. Our President is an egomaniac. This would have best been done with humility and dignity. The soldier served this country well and this should have been handled privately within the military but Mr. tough guy (read Napolean complex) had to make a public showing of how much of a hard a_s he is. Unfortunately, he’s just proving that he’s too immature for the job. As he said to Sen McCain, we’re not campaigning any more. Unfortunately, that’s all this guy has ever done. He’s starting to make Jimmy Carter look good.
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 24th, 2010
9:12 am
“Oh I forgot when a black person gets the job the rules change.”
Yeah, you left wingers were calling Condi Rice, Aunt Jamima and Uncle Tom………yep, the rules do change when a black person gets a job in high office.
“I still say has anyone noticed besides me that the Republicans are not WORKING they are campaigning for November and 2012 which is 2 years away.”
If you had half a brain you’d know that the democrats control congress. Democrats shut Republicans out of everything.
Oh, and when is Obama gonna stop campaigning and lead?
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 24th, 2010
9:12 am
“They get up everyday and say “GOTCHA”.”
That’s exactly what democrats did for Bush’s two terms. Payback sucks!
Larry
June 24th, 2010
9:14 am
Hotlanta
Get off your racist bandwagon. You’re trying to tell us Bush’s every move wasn’t put under a microscope? Where were you the past 30 years? Every president since JFK has gone through this crap. It has nothing to do with race. IT’s the nature of the job and President Obama knew that when he went after it. He wanted it and now he’s got it so quit your crying and grow up.
hotlanta ain't so hot with her makeup off
June 24th, 2010
9:23 am
It amuses me when liberals play the race card without any shred of evidence. Ms Cynthia Tucker has a “column” about how “much needed diversity” has come to the GOP. I guess she’d never heard of Larry Elder, Condi Rice, Colin Powell, Marco Rubio, Michelle Malkin, Thomas Sowell, JC Watts, Alan Keyes, Clarence Thomas and many other black, hispanic and asian GOPers. I guess she and hotlanta totally missed the fact that the GOP has a gay section called the Log Cabin Republicans as well.
Yes, people like hotlanta and Tucker will continue to play the race card because they haven’t the intelligence to know that most people don’t wake up everyday pondering how they can keep minorities down.
What sad sad sad lives these individuals must live.
Halftrack
June 24th, 2010
10:32 am
All the stuff going on yesterday was for entertainment and ego building purposes. The general told the truth – - – the real problem is there is no clear vision or purpose in Affganastan. The WH is so mixed up they don’t know who’s on first and can’t give the Troops and commanders any direction or backing. It’s hard to see body bags being filled with so little support from back home without being peeeed off.
Churchill's MOM
June 24th, 2010
12:13 pm
Why does the AJC not have a hot link for opinion? All the real papers up North do, The local ABH has them and the Augusta paper does. Now that I think about it the AJC is the only paper I read thet doesn’t.
Churchill's MOM
June 24th, 2010
12:16 pm
I am writing about the need for a direct link in the masthead for the opinion section, sorry that I’m such a poor writer.
DEWSTARPATH
June 24th, 2010
1:04 pm
CommunistsAJC & Obama has the IQ –
– You obviously have no
DEWSTARPATH
June 24th, 2010
1:06 pm
CommunistsAJC & Obama has the IQ –
– You obviously have no common sense, since you haven’t
figured out that everyone knows you’re Bob Loblaw.
DEWSTARPATH
June 24th, 2010
1:10 pm
LobLAw: This is the post you mentioned -
LA BOB BLOWs goats (whatever that means)
June 23rd, 2010
4:12 am
– which was posted after THIS –
DEWSTARPATH blows goats
June 21st, 2010
9:17 am
– Hypocrite. I won’t even paste the offensive one you put
up after your 9:17 post, where you try to use my handle again.
DEWSTARPATH
June 24th, 2010
1:14 pm
“Dewstar, you of all people should be talking. I took a look at Wootens blog and low and behold you wrote “LA BOB BLOWs goats”.
1. You didn’t just “take a look” at Wooten’s blog. You’ve been trading
insults with me for weeks there.
2. It’s not “low and behold”, flunky. It’s “lo and behold”.
3. No one can buy stupid. You’ve cornered the market.
DEWSTARPATH
June 24th, 2010
1:20 pm
Obama has the IQ of dung
June 24th, 2010
9:08 am
“That same adolescent insult was used against me in Wooten’s blog.”
Dew, prove it.
FROM “Believe Obama or Lying Eyes – comments page # 2″:
Bob Loblaw
June 23rd, 2010 – 9:59 am
“dewstar has the IQ of dung.”
CrazyInGA
June 24th, 2010
1:39 pm
“Gen. David Petraeus told CNN on Thursday that he supports President Barack Obama’s July 2011 deadline to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan, a key point of contention between the president and many of his Republican critics in Congress.”
Please, Oh Please…… bring home our troops.
hotlanta ain't so hot with her makeup off
June 24th, 2010
2:12 pm
DEWSTARPATH is off his meds again.
hotlanta ain't so hot with her makeup off
June 24th, 2010
2:12 pm
“Please, Oh Please…… bring home our troops.”
Not gonna happen.
Obama the hypocrite
June 24th, 2010
2:15 pm
Obama said that the surge in Iraq was a failure. Obama also sided with the NY Times Moveon.org General BetrayUs ad.
Flash forward to 2010: Obama is hailed as a hero by the left for appointing Petreus to lead in Iraq…
Obama and liberals are flat out stupid.
NOV 2010: The official end of Obama Husseins presidency.
Intown
June 24th, 2010
2:18 pm
I’m not sure if any president or general can save this war. It is AFGANISTAN for crying out loud. It has never been governable … EVER! Our aim after 9/11 was to (a) seek complete revenge for 9/11 and (b) to remove a safe-haven for Al-Qaeda, preferably permanently. I think we initially killed a bunch of bad guys and disrupted the safe-haven and then we unfortunately went on a wild expedition into Iraq diverting crucial resources from our military at a crucial time. I submit that the revenge mission is still incomplete because OBL lives and breathes and that permanent disruption of Al-Qaeda’s safe-haven is not posssible without a permanent U.S. or Allied presence in the unruly corrupt pathetic excuse for a nation we call Afghanistan. Americans do not have the resolve for permanent occupation. But, that is what is needed. This is a liberal talking.
DEWSTARPATH
June 24th, 2010
2:20 pm
hotlanta ain’t so hot with her makeup off
June 24th, 2010
2:12 pm
- Wrong again, LobLAw.
hotlanta ain't so hot with her makeup off
June 24th, 2010
2:48 pm
DEWSTARPATH
What in the world are you talking about?
hotlanta ain't so hot with her makeup off
June 24th, 2010
2:50 pm
Intown
Bush never intended on keeping us there forever. The main goal was to wipe out the Taliban and our forces wiped out thousands of them.
Obama and the democrats are the ones who insist on us concentrating on Afghanistan.
JKL2
June 24th, 2010
3:12 pm
Obama’s best plan is to bring back the guy they couldn’t stand running the show when Bush was in charge. Kind of sounds like a step backwards to me. So much for the change.
Too bad we couldn’t bring back Reagan…
DEWSTARPATH
June 24th, 2010
4:03 pm
- I’m talking about you claiming I’m on medication.
Prove it.
hotlanta ain't so hot with her makeup off
June 24th, 2010
4:43 pm
“- Wrong again, LobLAw.”
What is a LobLAw?
hotlanta ain't so hot with her makeup off
June 24th, 2010
4:44 pm
“I’m talking about you claiming I’m on medication.
Prove it.”
You don’t get sarcasm do you?
hotlanta ain't so hot with her makeup off
June 24th, 2010
4:45 pm
JKL2
Obama bringing in Petreus makes Bush look great! It makes Obama look stupid since he said that the surge in Iraq failed when it indeed succeeded. Just goes to show that Obama is one dumb man child.
hotlanta ain't so hot with her makeup off
June 24th, 2010
4:46 pm
Obama’s Greek Tragedy
Do you remember candidate Barack Obama offering his hope-and-change platitudes in front of the fake Greek columns during the Democratic convention? Or earlier pontificating at the Victory Monument in Berlin?
Why didn’t an old cigar-chomping Democratic pro take him aside and warn him about offending Nemesis? She is the dreaded goddess who brings divine retribution in ironic fashion to overweening arrogance.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/06/24/saving_obama_from_himself_106084.html
Real Athens
June 25th, 2010
8:29 am
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
1 MAY 2003
nelsonhoward
June 25th, 2010
8:50 am
It was a quintesential opportunity for President Obama, on the one hand there is the Gulf Oil spill which he has not been able to fix along with everybody else. On the other hand, a General that he can fix, by replacing him. He demonstrated that he is still in charge. On the other hand the Afghanistan war is like the oil spill, it has yet to be fixed.
somewhereinga
June 25th, 2010
12:15 pm
Gee, in the same blog you have Dusty calling Obama a wimp and Larry calling him a hard a-s. Yall need to make up your minds!
Sorry, Larry. Obama did what was needed, in the way that it was needed. he needed to show the military that the CIVILIANS are in control of them. We are not a third world country. Now he needs to set into motion the court martials of several other officers who participated in the article.
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7:02 pm
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