Buck-Private Barry Obama!!!!
WAKE UP AMERICA
Posted on 06/23/2010 2:03:42 AM PDT by Jet Jaguar
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama faces two grim choices on Wednesday: Fire Gen. Stanley McChrystal and risk looking like he’s lost control of the war in Afghanistan. Or keep him and risk looking like he’s lost control of his generals.
Even before McChrystal’s very public slap at his boss surfaced on Monday night, the White House was already bristling at the perception that the war in Afghanistan was becoming unwinnable.
The decisive military offensive to clear the strategic town of Marjah has foundered. Another, bigger offensive to drive the Taliban from its home turf in Kandahar has been delayed. U.S. casualties are rising in a war that ranks as America’s longest, surpassing the grim milestone of 1,000 dead earlier this month. Corrupt warlords and Taliban militants are pocketing tens of millions in U.S. aid.
Now Obama must add a new crisis to that daunting list: The commander he handpicked to win the Afghanistan war allowed a reporter for Rolling Stone to embed with him and his closest staff for a month, offering up a series of incendiary and embarrassing comments about the president and his war cabinet.
If he fires McChrystal, Obama will enjoy the dubious distinction of being the only president in modern U.S. history to sack two wartime commanders in a little more than a year. Last May, Gen. David McKiernan was relieved of post commanding the Afghan war effort after the White House and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said “fresh eyes” were needed to find a more successful path forward.
On Capitol Hill, where last week key lawmakers from both parties peppered Gates and Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus with probing questions about the course of the Afghan war, leaders praised McChrystal’s work but simultaneously blasted his decision to speak with Rolling Stone.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and other key Senate Armed Services members issued a statement calling McChrystal’s comments “inappropriate and inconsistent with the traditional relationship between Commander-in-Chief and the military.”
Retired Navy vice admiral Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., said that military officers have a responsibility to speak bluntly, but “you say that privately and keep it behind closed doors.”
But Rep. David Obey, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and a key liberal voice in the House, called McChrystal’s comments “contemptuous of his civilian superiors” and demanded his resignation. CBS News later reported that McChrystal had offered a letter of resignation.
“His comments, and those of his subordinates, dismissing the President, the Vice-President, Gen. (James) Jones, Ambassador (Karl) Eikenberry, and Richard Holbrooke suggests that Gen. McChrystal is locked into an ‘everybody is wrong but me’ approach to the world,” Obey said.
Still, most congressmen stopped short of calling for McChrystal’s dismissal, saying instead that the tone and sincerity of his apology after Wednesday’s meeting with Obama would determine his future role.
Daniel Goure, vice president of the conservative Lexington Institute, said the reason for that is simple.
“To put anyone else in charge right now would be a disaster,” Goure said.
Goure said the Rolling Stone article doesn’t quite amount to a Truman/MacArthur moment, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur was sacked over his public opposition to President Harry Truman’s strategy in the Korean War. The most damning comments in the article come from McChrystal’s advisers, Goure noted, and at least one of those staffers has already been fired for his involvement with the piece.
Regardless, Goure said, no other American figure has the clout with Afghan president Hamid Karzai or the knowledge of the counterinsurgency strategy to succeed in Afghanistan.
But the liberal group VoteVets.org said McChrystal must be fired for disrespecting the chain of command.
Brian Katulis, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said the article could easily be used as Taliban propaganda, revealing infighting among U.S. leaders and a lack of real concern for the Afghan people.
“He’s supposed to be leading efforts to win the hearts and minds over there,” Katulis said. “This article doesn’t help.”
Obama already is suffering from dwindling support for the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. A Gallup poll released earlier this year showed that more than a third of voters believe it was a mistake to send U.S. troops into Afghanistan. A Pew Research Center poll released earlier this month showed a drop in confidence in Obama’s foreign policy decisions, both among Americans (down 9 percent) and in European and Middle East countries.
Obama is not qualified to give orders to privates, let alone generals!
I suspect McCrystal was forced into that situation himself.
Do nothing, in the face of a CiC who’s strategy has nothing to do with the best interests of the United States, while he gets all the blame.
Or do something.
Obama fires him (or even tongue lashes him in a way that makes it look like the Afghan strategy is not McChrystal’s) and we lose in Afghanistan and/or suffer Afghan-sources terrorist attacks...well, it aint gonna be Bush’s fault in the court of public opinion.
Checkmate to McChrystal no matter what happens. Maybe McC planned it this way.
McChrystal was reacting to being forced into a no-win situation by Obama (and Bush), Gates, the Joint Chiefs, and the whole disgusting bunch of Washingtom pukes who think you can fight a war without inflicting casualties. Fight or don’t fight!
“His comments, and those of his subordinates, dismissing the President, the Vice-President, Gen. (James) Jones, Ambassador (Karl) Eikenberry, and Richard Holbrooke suggests that Gen. McChrystal is locked into an ‘everybody is wrong but me’ approach to the world,” Obey said.
Those people (with the possible exception of Jones - but one has to wonder how one rises to power in an armed force controlled by sorrupt politicians) have one thing in common/ They are all total political hacks.
“Brian Katulis, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said the article could easily be used as Taliban propaganda, revealing infighting among U.S. leaders and a lack of real concern for the Afghan people.”
I wonder where Mr. Clueless was duing Vietnam and the Bush Administration.
POTUS Obama should fire General McChrystal and then he should be impeached by his own Democrat Party for treason on many counts!!! Actually we, the people, should now begin a serious campaign to get Obama removed from office either by his Democrat Party forcing him to resign or impeaching his outright. Obama is the “real” traitor to America and all her people!!!
Translation:
If McCain said it, that means McChrystal was right on target.
it also shows how thin-skinned the bamster is, so very very sensitive demanding and as Doc Savage put it “ a petulant martinet” (my paraphrase)
“Truman/MacArthur moment, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur was sacked over his public opposition to President Harry Truman’s strategy in the Korean War.”
Because MacArthur wanted to lay mega tons of Cobalt 60 on the DMZ. Truman wimped out.
Considering the Rolling Stone is better able to dig up a short story written by McCrystal years before in West Point, which is more than anybody can seem to dig up on Obama, and the content of that short story being an inside assassin seeking to take out the President, and McChrystal’s off the cuff comments reported in the story, I’m a bit surprised anybody would let the General anywhere near the President.
I trust from the story that McCrystal is obedient and has placed his best intentions on his command, in accordance with direction given him by the President, but IMHO, the story is an attempt to create more of a political charade supporting Hillary’s political agenda, than support either Obama, McChrystal, or any allies fighting the Taliban.
0bama is a domestic enemey of the Consititution of the USA! Impeach him!
Have you read the article? I did - twice. I can find no quotes from McChrystal that were derogatory to the "one". There are plenty of quotes from his aides, though.
This tells me McStupid didn't read it and is just jumping on the bandwagon.
MacArthur was 71 when facing Truman, with aspirations of the Presidency.
McChrystal has been a fast track career officer and is only 55.
MacArthur had already commanded the Pacific Theater and the conclusion of WWII in total war, when North Korea invaded the south and he then commanded UN forces.
IMHO, two entirely different situations.
The rules must be changed to allow the troops to kill and blow things up. Until the woosie weenies in the WhiteHouse allow he military to function it can not.
Everyone knows the general is acting on principle by placing the burden where it belongs in the Oval Office. The days of carefully sitting on the fence between two factions is over. The general has forced the issue.,,,,,, fight a war or lose a war.
Which will it be Commander in Chief?
By the way sir, how’s the war coming in the Gulf, the Gulf of Mexico? Is that your ass in your hand?
The General demonstrated low moral character, poor judgement, and complete stupidity by voting for the known Mooslime, Commie, Chicago thug, doper, who isn’t even a Natural Born Citizen. He doesn’t belong in the military.
It also tells us RIGHT OUT LOUD, that the military HATES Bongo boy.
BTW, I tend to concur on your observation. I had recently been taken aback at how young McChrystal had been and his incredibly fast tracked career.
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