“What Do You Do With A General When He Stops Being A General”

6/24/10

General McChystal left President Obama no choice but to accept his resignation or fire him if you prefer. It is a breech of protocol and tradition to criticize the “commander in chief” publicly or in the press. It is a big no-no.

I do not disagree, the military’s roll is not make or comment on policy, the military’s job carry out policy decisions made my a civilian government.

There is one other twist to the McChrystal story, although he showed poor judgment with his comments, the General and his aides were correct in his assessment of the President and the administration.

Included in the Rolling Stone article are McChrystal remarks, most of which came from his staff. One McChrystal aide called national security adviser James Jones a “clown.” Can’t be much argument there.

U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, a three-star general, was characterized as more concerned with protecting “his flank for the history books,” by sending out CYA memos constantly. McChrystal felt and was "betrayed" by Eikenberry who leaked a memo saying, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai was not an "adequate strategic partner" for the United States. You would have thought that this comment was information that if repeated would not be in the best interest of our soldiers in Afghanistan, yet The President’s “man,” Eikenberry leaked the comment.

One of McChrystal’s aides also commented that Richard Holbrooke, the Obama Middle East envoy, was described as "a wounded animal." The aide said that "Holbrooke keeps hearing rumors that he’s going to get fired, so that makes him dangerous."

However, what probably upset the President the most was the critique, that in a meeting with senior military officials, that he (President Obama) appeared “uncomfortable and intimidated.” So what’s new, the President is intimidated by foreign leaders or anyone who may be competent.

I have been saying for several years now that the President just doesn’t get it. That he does not have a grasp of policy, issues, history or the American people. He doesn’t understand America and he doesn’t understand Americans. He is also surrounded and influenced by people who do not like America.
He is the uninvolved President, all ideology, no substance or thought. The Rolling Stone article cites a source saying McChrystal was "disappointed" with his meeting with Obama, who was uninformed and not engaged, this is credited to McChrystal's aides.

This is not the first time McChrystal has irritated the president. When Vice President “Duh?” Biden opposed the troop build up and came up with his plan for withdrawal most of the troops and instead fight the war with drones. McChrystal commented that would result in “Chaos-istan.”

The President never gave McChrystal the support he sought from the beginning, CBS News reported that “McChrystal sought 50,000 troops for the surge.” Obama gave authourized 30,000, while trying to get other nations to send troops. But at the time of the surge the President made another one of his ill advised moves by declaring a deadline to begin to withdraw the troops. It is believed that McChrystal thought this was a mistake. Most rational people and competent people know that you do reveal your plans publicly to the enemy. It is a sign of weakness. This undermined our position with the Afghans and puts our troops in harms way as well as those Afghans that support our efforts.

Why would the President do something like this, the answer is obvious. He is incapable of standing up to the pressure from the left wing of his party to make a timetable in stone for troop withdrawal. He did this over the objections of conservatives who believed this would destabilize the situation is Afghanistan. It is beginning to look like the administration’s decision to set an artificial deadline could prove to be a devastating disaster to our effort in Afghanistan and may have made a successful effort impossible.

Ah, “Change We Can Believe In.” Perhaps critics, during the campaign, of President Obama’s lack of experience, including Vice President “Duh?” Biden, were right…maybe a President of the United States does need administrative experience beyond his campaign staff.

So what is the moral of this little “Obama Drama?” Those who don’t know…don’t know. Those who do get fired.