Watch what you say around the office. Especially if the office is in the Rolling Stone Magazine building. The subject seems tired already but is too important to leave alone. I’m already tired of hearing about it, but feel the need, naturally, to opine about it just the same.
General Stanley McChrystal owes no apology to the nation. His reputation and achievements, unlike our President, precede him. Still, he needed to go. There was no question in my mind. The office of the President of the United States simply cannot be lowered to that level. It’s not Sean Penn blabbering away to Rolling Stone, it’s military brass.
Early on I figured it was all by design. Perhaps McChrystal chose Rolling Stone to be sure that the President might read the interview. It’s hard to believe that a guy this sharp wandered into that interview not knowing what was coming, or the outcome. It’s also not hard to understand the frustration he must be feeling. The Obama administration, which should be consulting with him at least weekly, took months to sit down with him, and even then, only the most cursory of meetings. It must be something to be living that Hell, and simultaneously be barely noticed as important by your own White House.
The problem precedes the Obama White House though. It began in Vietnam, really, when the waging of wars and building of strategy drifted from the hands of military brass and into the sweaty palms of politicians. Not good. One would think the nation would have learned its lesson. Look…soldiers fighting for our safety and freedom have tighter Rules of Engagement than I do as a homeowner in New Hampshire. If someone breaks into my house in the middle of the night, in any kind of threatening way, I make the rules of engagement on the spot. We have so hog-tied our fighting men and women trying to make war not hurt, that our battles have turned into what Dennis Miller once called a “horrific dogpaddle”. He’s right. And McChrystal was right to fall on his sword for the good of the troops. Already, Petraeus is talking about loosening those rules. You know…so maybe we can win the thing and come home.
It’s funny, because I supported John McCain for President, lots of folks told me they thought of him as a war monger. I disagree. Who better to know what Hell war can bring than someone who endured it. It only seems fitting to me that our Commander in Chief be someone who has seen battle. It is the most consequential of Presidential responsibilities, sending men and women to battle. You wouldn’t hire a Fire Chief who had never been in a burning building. You wouldn’t ride in an airplane with a pilot who had only watched movies about flying. People jump up and down at the notion that military service should be a pre-requisite for being President, but I believe it firmly. I also believe, had McCain beat Bush in 2000, Iraq would not have happened, or it would have happened much differently. War must be the last of last resorts. As we look at the last nine years, we remember why.
It’s ironic that Obama’s first display of leadership was shown in the swift sacking of a real leader. Hurt feelings, to be sure, and insubordination, made it a sure thing. If only he had had the same juice for the oil spill, things might be looking a lot different in the Gulf right now.
Thank you, General McChrystal, for the depth of your service to this country. I’m glad you’re out. You deserve it. Go clean up on the speech circuit now. You’ve earned it.
Tags: Gen. Stanley McChrystal
karl….I myself have felt that way many times…..you know simply want to throw your hands up in the air and simply surrender to the awful joke our civilization has become……and nothnig in my life quite equals the seriousness of what this great general maintains responsibility…..the lifes of young kids fighting for this country are nothing to trifle with…..I somewhat now understand what jay severin meant when he says not one kids life over there is worth it…..with a president and administration such as this it is now clearly evident what jay was speaking of…..
You know, Joey, that’s how I feel about it now. I think that’s why McChrystal did what he did, to finally call attention to the lunacy of it. We should pound these countries from the air, or not go at all. We owe nothing to any country that would account for us having to put boots on the ground, roll inthe dirt with them, and have our young soldiers blown to bits with their homemade bombs. Go to win, and win swiftly, or don;t go at all. This President frightens me at this point.
I wonder how everybody and anybody is DEFINING “victory” in Afganistan???
I don’t see it…………..
I agree it’s hard to see at this point, and the damage is already done in terms of soldiers maimed and lost and the world view of America as a military super-power. My strategy in Afghanistan would have been to start bombing at the highest mountain, and bomob outward in concentric circles, flushing out the mountain hideouts and forcing them to a concentrated location. But what do I know. At this point, hammer down or get out.
Boy have I missed you all!!! I think McChrystal’s people did most of the talking (I have not finished the articel) but of course they know how he feels.
Obama is really leading us done the wrong path in every way…and he is hiding. Where the hell is he on anything? He put all the wrong people on staff and will pay for it in the next election…hopefully…we can’t live for 4 more years with this incompetence.
Bogey!! Our long lost friend from the forum! The wrong path? You’re beiing generous. This latest speech regarding immigration really lays it all out on the table. This guy is going to try and cram through everything he can between now and November. Illegals here will receive blanket amnesty. He will continue to spend us into oblivion, and, I believe, soon, double-digit inflation will cripple what’s left of the economy. Had Bill Glynn on last Sunday’s show, really worth a listen. We are headed for economic doom. Can you say….”Greece”?
hehehe….you know it’s me Tracie right? (-;
Of course I do. Black Cat….
that’s me!
I am getting sick of the horsey board political conversations..christians suck, we are all racist, Obama is wonderful and it’s all Bush’s fault….it get tiresome.
…yeah..it’s getting old all right. Of course it’s all Bushs’ fault, the question now is becoming…what will the NEXT adminstration inherit? A bankrupt nation, I suspect.
Tracie, nice to hear from you.:)
Somebody ought to invite Andy. …He was always very active.
It would be like the forum without the VBulletin charge.