So Gen. Stanley McChrystal lost his job. Does it matter?
Aside from the fact that with Wednesday’s announcement the nation’s capital could finally exhale for the first time since news broke about the profanity-laced Rolling Stone profile in which the now-former Afghanistan commander made disparaging comments about members of President Obama’s Afghanistan team (including Obama himself), absolutely nothing of consequence resulted from the whole breathless melodrama.
Why not? Half the world by now has read the magazine article describing senior staff behavior more Animal House than conduct becoming the average adult, let alone officers and gentlemen. But despite the scandalous headlines, what we mainly gleaned was: Most of the f-words salting the copy came from the reporter; the general’s actual antics weren’t so much disparaging as childishly indiscreet (“‘Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke,’ he groans …”); and crude (“McChrystal gives him the middle finger”); and his top aides sounded like a bunch of dorks (“Make sure you don’t get any of that on your leg,” an aide jokes, referring to the Holbrooke e-mail).
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Cartoon in our local paper this a.m., soldiers on the phone, Hello, Rolling Stone.
Excellent article Jack. I’ve read the term COIN but really didn’t understand what it was about and the repercussions to it’s use.
Thanks,
Pat
McChrystal somehow evokes historical depictions of General Patton. That war was definitively WON. Imagine that.
Anyone who thinks that this whole thing wasn’t ‘arranged’ by McChrystal is deluding themselves. Either McChrystal embarrasses Oblamebush into supporting the war or Oblamebush fires him. Either way its a win for McChrystal.
Good point Joe – I think General McCrystal gave Obama the opportunity to get out from under the thumb of armchair generals and win the war with a warrior. Obama was true to his pacifist, appeasing nature, the “blame America for everything crowd” and went with the political class. General Petraeus will get the job done – but Obama will be unable to refuse his requests or stand in the way. Its actually a win for the US military. Cheers.