Posted on 06/23/2010 4:14:57 AM PDT by tobyhill
Stan McChrystal came out of the military's Special Ops with an unwavering faith in his specialness that went against the strict code of fellow snake-eaters.
The "black ops" types hardly ever talk, much less brag, about what they do and how they do it.
But Gen. McChrystal went on "60 Minutes" to display his warrior-monk ethos, show off his Spartan living quarters and jog around the camp in the predawn darkness while lesser mortals of the "regular" Army slept.
And what Special Ops commandos really don't do is this - provide color commentary on the failings of the regulars, and the suits and politicians in the chain of command, as McChrystal did in the Rolling Stone piece aptly titled "Runaway General."
In America, generals with runaway egos and mouths tend to become gone-away generals. It happened famously during the Korean War, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur defied his boss, President Harry Truman, once too often. MacArthur came home to parades, but history judged Truman the winner, along with the principle that generals answer to elected, civilian leaders.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Writers/journalists and others are flooding my inbox. Many questions. One line of questions goes like this, "Why would your embed be canceled yet Rolling Stones is out with McChrystal's staff while they are drunken and dancing?"
People are trying to make sense out of this but there is no sense to b...e made. McChrystal and his staff simply are incompetent. It's clear. Incompetence doesn't need a reason; incompetence bounces around like a pinball. Incompetence is itself. It's a closed little universe in a bubble and can defy prediction.
Numerous people over the last months have asked me to support claims that Stanley McChrystal and Daniel Menard are incompetent. Fact is, those people (such as milkooks) who can't see it already, likely never will. It's difficult to explain incompetence with 1-2-3 thinking. It's like pornography or art. You know it when you see it.
Another sign that McChrystal -- and Rear Admiral Gregory Smith who also should be fired -- are clueless is that fact that many large stories that you see break on Afghanistan have an unseen hand. My name is rarely mentioned, yet my inbox and phone can be like a switchboard connecting big journalists to big things. Things that I do not have time for, or do not wish to cover. Now just why Admiral Gregory Smith and McChrystal's staff would miss that is, well... Just not smart.
Get rid of McChrystal. Fire Rear Admiral Gregory Smith.
Let's move out and reenergize ourselves to win this war.
Start winning the war in Afghanistan?
Am I wrong or hasn’t the Obama Administration already set a 2011 date for deafeat concerning the Afghanistan War?
You're not wrong. That alone must have been stuck in the general's craw.
BTW, McChrystal himself sounds like he was a McMixed Bag.
On one hand it looked like he was a "warrior" general, not a political general, who literally fought with his troops and more about their welfare than his next star (I think).
On the other hand, his convoluted Bushesque strategy of "counterinsurgency (COIN) with its confused goals and roles of the military and attendant rules of engagement put our troops' life, limb, and morale at risk.
COIN requires years to implement and an overwhelming force to accomplish the goal. So a year ago he sells this idea to an idiot who then turns around and gives him half the troops he wants and announces we'll be pulling out in 2011.
You don't have to be a genius to see there is a failure to communicate occurring here.
Bob, a side man with The Budman on WFLA 540 in Orlando, said McChrystal should walk into the oval office arrest Obama for crimes against the country......my kind of guy
How the heck do you win a war when their hands are tied.
I believe McCrystal is doing the best under the circumstances.
Here's the quote we all know, but we never hear the WHOLE quote:"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste, and what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you didn't think you could do before."
Of course, the writer leaves out the fact that Obama has tied the hands of our military, on when and how they can use deadly force.
How could any general win a war like that?
The answer is no general can.
I respect Yon’s work in the ME, but I’m suspicious of his sentiment towards McChrystal.
Question is, will General McChrystal be strip-searched, frisked and forced to walk through a metal-detector before the White House security staff allows him into the presence of the annointed one? My guess says yes....
We spent 10 years trying to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people and couldn't get it to work, even with huge resources and political resolve.
Then the general should do the right thing and resign.
It has recently been discovered that Afghanistan sits astride huge lithium ore deposits, which is the electronic fuel equivalent of petroleum. This element is widely required in the manufacture and energization of electronic equipment. There is more at stake in Afghanistan economically than meets the eye. We aren’t there to prop up a “poppy field” economy.
Look for the good general making the equivalent of the ‘perp wall’s on his way to ‘retirement’...
Things I want to know:
Did the Obama PC police force the general to take on a leftist anti-war embed?
What team of ACLU lawyers is writing the ROE?
Why are active engagement orders waiting on green flags from the DOJ?
McChrystal should be fired. His strategy can’t work, and he should have resigned and spoken out, or kept his mouth shut.
The only reason it worked in Iraq was because the Iraqis finally tired of AQ blowing up innocents while ignoring the hunkered down Americans.
GWB’s announcement of the strategy change and the surge was perfect timing, giving the Iraqis the assurance that they could kill the terrorists without worrying about the US’s commitment to them. That is how the war in Iraq was won.
Only with the Afghan people behind us can COIN work, and Obama has already screwed that pooch by setting a surrender date. McChrystal has only thrown American lives away, compounded by ROE’s that he has approved.
With Obama at the helm, Afghanistan is a lost cause.
This is another horrible outcome of his and the Democrats being put in charge.
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