When the President accepted General Stanley McChrystal's resignation over a Rolling Stone magazine story in which the most damaging thing the General said, when asked about Joe Biden, said "Who's that"? How does this rise to the level of insubordination?
Reading through the article, I was more taken with the statements of the General's subordinates. They are pretty much the same things I am hearing from my active duty friends, as well as those who have chosen to get out of the military. As I read the story, I couldn't help but wonder if the story the media should be covering is: Have Our Men & Women Of The Military Lost Confidence In Their Commander In Chief? To be fair to the President, his decision was pre-ordained by the ginned-up media firestorm. But that also goes to how weakened this Presidency has become, when the media can take a fairly innocuous statement, and essentially force a President into a position of ending a General's career. In the same breath, they say what a brilliant move it is to replace him with General Petraeus, a man that they had once labeled "Betray Us", and whom this President failed to defend while he was a Senator. The truth, in my opinion, is that this was a convenient way to get rid of a guy that the President did not like to begin with, and the media gave him political cover to get rid of him. So now it is up to General Petraeus to win the war in Afghanistan, another General that the President is not fond of. I hope General Petraeus has somebody to watch his flank, or he may be the next McChrystal.
Did the President end his career or did the General do it to himself? What kind of a jackass has a Rolling Stone interviewer follow him around for an entire month and the whole time he is allowing his hand picked staff to publicly berate his chain of command? Unacceptable for an E-1 or a 4 star General.....I love yah Brian. Ryck.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the General made an error in judgement in allowing RS access. My point is, did anything HE say rise to the level of insubbordination? You can certainly make the case that his subordinates did, but we don't know that they were making these comments in earshot of the General. His PR Officer should certainly be called on the carpet in regards to the decision to allow RS this kind of access, as well. My point is that the article reflects more poorly on the President than it does on Gen. McChrystal, and are the troops losing confidence in their Commander in Chief? If so, we've got huge problems.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, thanks for taking the time to comment. I do appreciate the feedback. Love ya too, Ryck!