Obama Ousts McChrystal
I can’t say I disagree with the president on this one:
President Barack Obama ousted Gen. Stanley McChrystal as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Wednesday, choosing the embattled general’s direct boss — Gen. David Petraeus — to take over the troubled 9-year-old war, a source told The Associated Press.
Do like that he’s putting Petraeus in charge of Afghanistan. McChrystal’s loose lips may redound to the nation’s benefit.
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Well at least with Petraeus in charge we know at least ONE grown-up will be in the room.
Comment by Delusional Bill — June 23, 2010 @ 2:07 pm - June 23, 2010
Yeah, and let’s hope Obama will learn from this one.
In other words: He is CinC, he gets to remove McChrystal and make him the bad guy etc. But Obama is not guiltless in this; many of McChrystal’s criticisms appear to have been valid. Obama would be wise to clean up is act while everyone is distracted by the last guy, the scapegoat. If his relationship with Petraeus sours as well, all the world will know (then) that Obama is the common factor, i.e. the real problem.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — June 23, 2010 @ 2:15 pm - June 23, 2010
Whether or not the criticisms “appear” to be valid will differ in the eye of the beholder, but insubordination, as some are calling this, isn’t ok regardless. Harming the troops’ morale by casting doubt on the war effort and disrespect for the chain of command (not to mention disrespect to the Veep in front of the whole world) has consequences.
ILC: w/r/t respect for the chain of command, Obama isn’t “making” McChrystal the bad guy. McChrystal did that all by himself.
Comment by torrentprime — June 23, 2010 @ 2:26 pm - June 23, 2010
I agree with McChrystals’ message, I just don’t agree with how he said it. I hope that McChrystal doesn’t end his job of leading this war, he’s doing a fine job at it. Lesson one, have respect for the president regardless of the circumstances. 2) If you’re going to say that (Joe Biden please take note of this), don’t say it where everyone can hear you, like to a reporter of the rolling stones magazine. Reporters have to record and write every little detail. As far as Joe Biden goes, don’t cuss over a microphone.
Comment by Jacqueline Ruso — June 23, 2010 @ 2:31 pm - June 23, 2010
Really now????
Comment by Eric in Chicago — June 23, 2010 @ 3:04 pm - June 23, 2010
I’m going to qualify my prior comment with the caveat that as a former Pershing II Missile officer, McChrystal was completely out of line in breaking ranks with regard to his statements.
While it isn’t exactly a secret that il Douche is thoroughly unprepared for the office he now holds, it is entirely inappropriate for a uniformed member of the military to qualify that theory in the press. He does more harm than good in spouting off, especially to a magazine that made it’s bones commenting on the hedonism of Jim Morrisson and Janis Joplin (may God bless them both).
Comment by Eric in Chicago — June 23, 2010 @ 3:13 pm - June 23, 2010
Harming the troops’ morale by casting doubt on the war effort and disrespect for the chain of command (not to mention disrespect to the Veep in front of the whole world) has consequences.
Unless it benefits the Obama Party, as we saw repeatedly during the Bush presidency when Obama Party members and Obama Party-affiliated generals did it repeatedly.
Indeed, Barack Obama refused to condemn the Obama Party’s advertisement branding Petraeus as “General Betray Us”.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — June 23, 2010 @ 3:24 pm - June 23, 2010
I cannot wait for the McCrystal’s Book to come out! Looks like a 20 minute meeting is the most that Obama can focus.
Comment by Bunkerville — June 23, 2010 @ 3:28 pm - June 23, 2010
Jimmy Carter must be dancing in the streets.
having lived thru the Carter years I never thought anyone could compare with his administrations ineptitude.
Today the cap was knocked off the well head and now 400,000 barrells of oil are blasting into the gulf.
The military has lost all respect for Obama and his team of idiots.
The Dem in Congress can’t and won’t pass a budget for the first time in 45 years!
A judge slaps Obama down and says his interior sec was “disengenuous” when declaring a moritorium on drilling gulf wide.
Now oil is pouring ashore in my beloved FLA.
Yesterday Obama threatened HC providers if they raised HC premiums.
Germanys Mercle tried to educate Obama on how to stimulate a bad economy, because he seemed oblivious when she tried to get him to stop spending.
Housing starts this morning were announced as DOWN 33%! This during the summer of recovery! hehe
http://blogs.forbes.com/greatspeculations/2010/06/22/mcdonalds-gets-fat-returns-on-franchised-stores-little-meat-from-company-joints/?partner=yahootix
Unemployment….last thursday, the number of unemployment claims “unexpectedly” rose.
Today the govt stopped Gov Jindals burm building in the gulf, citing possible damage to the existing wild life.
Anyday now I expect Obama to burst into tears and quit, go back to ILL. Or is it Hawaii.
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — June 23, 2010 @ 3:34 pm - June 23, 2010
oops not McDonald’s but BP!
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/html/Skandi_ROV2.html
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — June 23, 2010 @ 3:36 pm - June 23, 2010
TP, Oh please. If McChrystal – same general, same point in the same war – said the exact same things under President Bush, you would be hailing him as a hero.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — June 23, 2010 @ 3:43 pm - June 23, 2010
(because the Talking Points would tell you to)
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — June 23, 2010 @ 3:43 pm - June 23, 2010
Agreed.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — June 23, 2010 @ 3:44 pm - June 23, 2010
Yes, President Obama did the right thing replacing Gen. McChrystal, and yes, the President did the right thing naming Gen. Patraeus to command Afghanistan.
I’m floored the President actually had the stones to make these decisions.
Little as I like President Obama, he done good on this.
Comment by Blake — June 23, 2010 @ 4:00 pm - June 23, 2010
Obama has done General McChrystal a favor. When President Harry S. Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur, it was the General´s stock that went up. There was a move by many Republicans to draft the General as the party nominee for the 1952 election. Truman didn´t even want to seek reelection. He was a one term president, since previously he ascended on the death of FDR. MacArthur refused the offer and just wanted to fade away. As a Republican, I would support a move to draft General McChrystal for President. Then he can show a retired or a defeated Obama, how a real commander in chief functions.
Comment by Roberto — June 23, 2010 @ 4:08 pm - June 23, 2010
I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but has anybody heard, yet, about how the Family Council of Reactionaries is actually condemning GoProud for being…real conservatives?!
Shades of Seane-Anna. This is such staggering, over-the-top hypocrisy, it’s almost like something a late-night comic would make up.
Only nobody has to make this stuff up…
Comment by Lori Heine — June 23, 2010 @ 4:41 pm - June 23, 2010
It’s a bit early to draft McCrystal for anything. He said things in front of a reporter (from Rolling Stone no less) that he shouldn’t have said. If that’s how he leads, we’re better off with him gone. It’s been pretty clear from the beginning that he was handed an impossible task. And now it’s being hung around Patraeus’s neck. Unless Obama changes the plan, and he won’t, Patraeus will be no more successful than Loose Lips McCrystal was. And when it fails, and it will, Obama will throw Patraeus under the bus and claim that it wasn’t his fault, it was the fault of the military. Anybody remember the tasteless ad “General Betrayus””? Bet the same people who paid for that will now be singing Patraeus’s praises.
Comment by Mary — June 23, 2010 @ 4:46 pm - June 23, 2010
Watching mess NBC and the usually foaming at the mouth Chris Matthews show, with their liberal experts portrays a out of touch, weak President who has to constantly ORDER his military to do things.
Where other Presidents would just let their commands be taken at face value….Obama finds it necessary to say… do this, do that and “THAT’S AN ORDER”. No inherent, built in respect that comes from intellegence and strong leadership. What a horrible portrait.
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — June 23, 2010 @ 5:31 pm - June 23, 2010
Funny thing. Obama dithered for months over whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. Obama dithered for weeks over how to respond to the Deepwater Horizon spill. But when McChrystal criticized the president, he was gone in a day.
Comment by V the K — June 23, 2010 @ 5:33 pm - June 23, 2010
[...] reading here: "Obama Ousts McChrystal" and related posts No [...]
Pingback by "Obama Ousts McChrystal" and related posts | www.TheUntoldStories.com — June 23, 2010 @ 5:49 pm - June 23, 2010
I’m just wondering how hard Obama folk are gonna push back when Petraeus inevitably asks for more troops and more time. The true irony will be that Obama might succeed in Afghanistan despite himself.
Comment by Delusional Bill — June 23, 2010 @ 6:01 pm - June 23, 2010
The alternate possibility is that Obama eliminates a potential political rival (Petreaus) by putting him “in charge” of a war Obama has no intention of winning.
Comment by V the K — June 23, 2010 @ 6:06 pm - June 23, 2010
What V the K said…this thought has occurred to me as well.
Comment by Mary — June 23, 2010 @ 6:15 pm - June 23, 2010
“…disrespect to the Veep,” please! Biden is the biggest boob in D.C.! From Biden’s own lips he has shown us what a classless and careless clown he is! And Obama isn’t a pillar of pristine presidential performance, either! When will this clown routine cease? No wonder the rest of the world thinks we are a joke! We’re not laughing.
Comment by Bloomie — June 23, 2010 @ 6:30 pm - June 23, 2010
There are a few issues raised in comment that require another look:
1. McChrystal is not a Republican. He voted for Obummer. Also he would make a lousy President.
2. As one who has been in uniform as a trainee officer, I need to point out that officers are not allowed to make comments about the political leaders under any circumstances – no matter where you live in the world.
3. McChrystal did not in fact make most of those comments. Plus the reporter from RS reported on comments made at a dinner when the group were inebriated and more likely to have loose lips.
Comment by StraightAussie — June 23, 2010 @ 7:18 pm - June 23, 2010
As a business owner with employees I can sympathize with the President on this one.
It isn’t easy to balance the goals and aspirations of your employees.
Many times they want the company to more in directions I don’t feel we want to go. I understand their eager talent but in the end it’s more about the direction of the company than the goals of the employees.
When I get an employee who starts to take a too commanding roll I have to pull them back…especially when they make promises to clients that I haven’t authorized. Their eagerness can land me in hot water.
So, Employee rule 101, don’t buck the boss…and especially don’t buck him in the news papers.
The ultimate authority is the guy who signs the checks.
Saying that McCrystal’s criticism were on target isn’t the point.
The point is…an employees job is to Do what you were assigned to do and keep your opinions to yourself…especially if you are on the payroll.
If McCrrystal couldn’t stand his employers he should have resigned a long time ago
Comment by Norris Hall — June 23, 2010 @ 7:30 pm - June 23, 2010
I posted this on another thread, but that thread is dead, so I’m moving it here.
McChrystal is done. This also means the Afghan war is going to be wound down in fairly short order. I expect that after the elections in November we will start to see a pull-out.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind. We were never in this to actually fight a war to win. We were never going to allow our military to do the some times horrible nasty things that are necessary to defeat an enemy such as the Taliban / Al Qaida types. Yes, we easily pushed the Taliban out of power, but we, even under the Bush administration, were willing to actually track them down where they hid and utterly destroyed them. That means going into Pakistan, if need be… And it needed to be.
We need to recognize that, in order to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people, we had the gloves on from the start. When we leave, we need to make sure that our enemies understand that, if they attack us again, we will come back, and not be as nice as we were this time around.
Comment by Sonicfrog — June 23, 2010 @ 7:39 pm - June 23, 2010
Powerline correctly points out:
I.e. it was a disgusting ad from them to begin with… and so craven are they, so slavishly do they serve the Dear Reader, that now they don’t even have the courage to stand by it.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — June 23, 2010 @ 8:13 pm - June 23, 2010
You know what else is absent from the coverage of the McChrystal thing? Any discussion at all of whether his criticisms of Obama’s administration were valid. No one seems to want to talk about that.
Comment by V the K — June 23, 2010 @ 11:12 pm - June 23, 2010
Really? More harm than the Community Agitator in Chief’s rules of engagement getting soldiers killed? Really?
Comment by ThatGayConservative — June 24, 2010 @ 12:12 am - June 24, 2010
OT: Turns out that BP and “big oil” were REQUIRED to use shitty government data in creating their offshore response plans.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703900004575325131111637728.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories
Comment by ThatGayConservative — June 24, 2010 @ 5:53 am - June 24, 2010
General McChrystal, I think, knew what he was doing. I don’t know the man and don’t want to judge him or his intentions but I think he fell on his sword. He knew the comments needed to come out and he needed to say them and he knew it was his career ending interview.
Can’t say I disagree with what he said, however, saying it was another matter.
Comment by David F. — June 24, 2010 @ 6:23 am - June 24, 2010
Well if Petraeus can pull off McChrystal’s plan, it will be interesting to see if he crosses the Rubicon.
Comment by The_Livewire — June 24, 2010 @ 6:39 am - June 24, 2010
Please, I know he spoke out of turn. But when you have someone sho does not know anything and they are blundering along, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
You are right Jimmy Carter must be doing cartwheels. This is no tie – this one is worse
Comment by PatriotMom — June 24, 2010 @ 7:10 am - June 24, 2010
The problem is, PatriotMom, the military has rules of conduct to follow. Correct or not McChrystal broke them, and had to offer his resignation.
If there was more skill than ego, the President could have turned this into a ‘Command Moment’ and extracted himself from Afghanistan (where, face it, he doesn’t want the US to be, let alone to win) by keeping McChrystal there.
It would have been win/win.
Scenario A: McChrystal’s actuions break the deadlock, Taliban crushed, and Obama’s seen as being a hero and ‘post partisan’ for keeping him, despite his comments.
Scenario B: The Surge fails, we pull out of Afghanistan ala Vietnam, Obama does his best to appear presidential, while pointing out that it was McChrystal’s plan, and lays the failure at his feet, in typical Obama fashion.
Both spins would be helped by the MSM of course.
Comment by The_Livewire — June 24, 2010 @ 8:40 am - June 24, 2010
I hate to belabor the point, but the fact remains that if McChrystal’s criticisms are valid, then putting Petraeus in charge without addressing the criticisms won’t change the dynamic in Afghanistan. And no one seems to be asking whether McChrystal’s criticisms were legit.
Comment by V the K — June 24, 2010 @ 9:40 am - June 24, 2010
He got fired for telling the truth. Obama doesn’t know anything about how to fight a war and neither does his administration. Leave the Generals who know how to fight and give them what they need, when they need it. Not ponder it for months.
Comment by gary arvidson — June 24, 2010 @ 10:10 am - June 24, 2010
Has anyone forgotten that this is the 2nd general Obama has removed from Afghanistan in his short time in office?’ Anybody remember General McKiernan who was removed in April 2009 (might be wrong on this date) to make way for Stanley McChrystal?
Comment by Mary — June 24, 2010 @ 10:54 am - June 24, 2010
Although it is to be hoped that Petraeus will complain, see that the right thing is done, resign if he can’t, etc.
There’s Obama, always bringing me *hope*. Under His Presidency, I have experienced more *hope* (as opposed to confidence) that the right thing will somehow be done anyway, than I ever could have imagined. Seems I’m not the only one. The AP headline as I type this is, “Relief greets Obama pick for new war commander.”
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — June 24, 2010 @ 10:55 am - June 24, 2010
Well Mary, Lincoln did it and don’t the Obots tell us Obama is the new Lincoln? /sarc
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — June 24, 2010 @ 10:57 am - June 24, 2010
I’m glad that Patraeus is back. I don’t think McChrystal is the man to have in charge.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDg0NTNiYjFlNzJhOTNiMTdhYzhmZGJiNWQxZTA2Mjk=
Comment by SoCalRobert — June 24, 2010 @ 6:31 pm - June 24, 2010
Let’s be clear because there seems to be confusion: McChrystal was not fired for his opinions, or for telling the truth. He was fired for publicly insulting and undermining his boss(es). McChrystal was surely capable of airing his opinions and home-truths in private with the relevant parties, and talking so contemptuously in public of his superiors displays monumentally poor judgment. He would not have hesitated to fire any officer beneath him who behaved in the same way, and for good reason.
Comment by Randy Handbag — June 24, 2010 @ 9:13 pm - June 24, 2010