[investigateworld]

I'm still not certain what McC’s agenda was - or did he even have one?

[varon]

I'm still not certain what McC’s agenda was - or did he even have one?

Perhaps he realized Afghanistan is a no-win situation and created a situation to get out without being blamed for failure as a commander.

[Friendofgeorge]

Exactly! I found myself wanting to root for him, but was having trouble with the fact that he voted for Obama.

Putting that for aside a second, if he is this once in a generation specialist etc, why the heck are they letting him go??

Why doesn`t someone stand up and say, hey we need this guy, he is an asset to the military, we have too much invested in him? Why doesn`t someone swallow their pride and offer him another very good assignment, put him in charge somewhere else?

[ichabod1]

Counterinsurgency means befriending and protecting the people, while relentlessly rooting out and destroying the enemy. I have this sense that McChrystal wasn’t doing so great on the relentless part.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

My guess is that he couldn’t bring himself to quit, so he did something to get fired.

[Sola Veritas]

“I’m still not certain what McC’s agenda was - or did he even have one?”

He didn’t have an agenda. He was not against President Obama, and may have even been a supporter. General McCrystal came out of the Special Ops community where you can get away with being plain spoken. However, when he rose beyond two star level, he lacked the savy to function at the higher levels. Not because he was a bad soldier or leader, but a naive person...and somewhat immature.

He naivete and immaturity became evident in his allowing a reporter from Rolling Stone close access to his inner circle. Most of us would have more sense than that.

He got fired because stuff he should have kept private, became public. I don’t think the POTUS was that ticked, he just couldn’t afford to lose face and leave the General in place. I actually believe that Mr. Obama likes General McCrystal and didn’t want to relive him. The politics required him to throw the general under the bus and he did. However, he isn’t mad..so he is going to let the general retire at a higher grade than normally allowed by the rules.

[chilltherats]

I think McChrystal wanted out. This was actually a smart way to go. This way, it isn’t obvious that he’s giving up a losing battle - losing battle because of his and zero’s ROEs - and doesn’t have to admit that we can’t win under his and zero’s ROEs and that they were a huge mistake.

This way he can dump it on Petraeus, the obvious go-to guy zero would pick. McChrystal may well have known that Petraeus won’t go along with those ROEs, so maybe McChrystal thought it was best for the country and the military if he found a way out and left it to Petraeus who would insist on changing the ROEs. Simultaneously, he gets himself off the hook without the reason for his departure affecting his reputation for performance/leadership quality, meaning the focus of his departure had to do with a non-military judgment call dealing with the media, an area in which he can justify ignorance and which doesn’t degrade his overall record.

And yes, generals are politically smart enough to figure out such a scheme.

It’s just a thought.

[SkyPilot]

I'm still not certain what McC’s agenda was - or did he even have one?

Unlike a lot of conservatives and Freepers, I am not mourning McChrystal's demise.

While a brilliant man, he is an egomaniac, and was a disaster. His Rules of Engagement (that he signed off on) got men killed, maimed, and wounded.

He closed all Pizza Huts and Burger King at the small morale building oasis in Kandahar, banned any alcohol in the AOR, but would fly over to Germany, Bahrain, and France to get drunk with his staff.

He is a self confessed "social liberal" who voted for Obama, and believes in Al Gore's lunatic ravings. He sees himself as an "environmentalist" and believes in the Global Warming scam.

He banned Fox News from his Headquarters, but put MSNBC in the channel line up.

He put his career at such a priority, that his own wife said she has seen him no more than 30 days a year since 2003.

He would sleep 4 hours a night, eat one meal a day, and run 100 miles a week in running shoes and shorts that had to match. This wasn't leadership - it was massive Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) on parade.