Posted on 06/23/2010 8:46:21 AM PDT by NCjim
Whatever else the storm over General Stanley McChrystal is about, it's not about a bunch of rude remarks from him and his staff in Rolling Stone. The world already knows that military types get drunk and sing stupid songs and make fun of their higher-ups. That's been the stuff of war -- fictional and real -- forever. Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin writes this morning about the incredible rudeness President Lincoln tolerated -- for a while -- from Gen. McLellan during the Civil War.
The big difference, of course, was that President Lincoln was trying to win the Civil War, a just cause on which hinged the life of our nation. McChrystal is the face of Afghanistan, of American struggle and suffering in a war that we're not winning and may have no business fighting, in a place where almost no outside force has won, with a counterinsurgency strategy that has led to disaster for other nations that have tried it. Rolling Stone writer Michael Hastings reveals McChrystal as a back-stabbing, trash-talking, politicking human being, and he makes you look at the facts of the war. McChrystal is not magic. He's a human being, and not a particularly pleasant representation of one. If you wanted to believe McChrystal could wave a wand over America's war in Afghanistan, Hastings forces you to see that your would-be magician is just another guy who doesn't want to read e-mail from a colleague he doesn't like.
Our problem is less McChrystal's behavior than the reality that we truly are still stuck in this war.
(Excerpt) Read more at maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com ...
The world already knows that Rachel Maddow shamelessly fellates her Leftist heroes like Preztard D'OHbama & dain-bramadged "Bite Me" Biden on camera and on her blog 24/7/365.
We are not winning?
We have no business fighting?
Any normal Afghan person is thrilled that they have FREEDOM.
We were WINNING till Obama came along. Obama WANTS us to LOSE THE WAR. Obama is bought and paid for by our enemies. Obama is looking for an excuse to pull out of the middle east and appease his friends - our enemies. Perhaps he will now do this through McChrystal and exhilarate our enemies and the LEFT in the U.S..
Lincoln was trying to win a Civil War, whereas Obama and his CYA DemoWussies are trying to *lose* another war, while avoiding the blame for it.
If President Lincoln had failed in his just cause, then Richmond would likely be mobilizing all efforts to contain the spill today, would not have passed nationalized healthcare, would not have nationalized GM, and would have re-integrated slaves into society by the end of the 19th century without need for an NAACP as mechanization rendered the point moot.
“If President Lincoln had failed in his just cause, then Richmond would likely be mobilizing all efforts to contain the spill today, would not have passed nationalized healthcare, would not have nationalized GM, and would have re-integrated slaves into society by the end of the 19th century without need for an NAACP as mechanization rendered the point moot.”
As a Yankee, I am glad Llincoln was successful. We are better off with a UNITED States. Where we have fallen apart is getting away from Biblical principles and values. We’ve compromised on principles and opened the door to the garbage you and I both object to.
I guess it is a good thing to know your enemy, but ....I would prefer never again to read any of Maddow’s thinkings.
straight scoop on lincoln and the ao-called civil war....
Who was McLellan? I know Lincoln had a worthless combat commander named George McCLELLAN but this “McLellan” guy is new to me.
You fell on your sword for the country General McChrystal. God bless you for that. You are up there in the Hero and real man department. God bless you.
Maddow is straight for Biden.
I agree with the premise that the real issue here is not that on the surface and the one everyone in the media is making such an issue of — that being McChrystal’s behavior.
The real underline issue being missed is the “why” behind and for Said McChrystal’s behavior.
Most of us here over the past year have read random news media reports suggesting that the top military brass in Afghanistan are very frustrated with this Jack Squat administration’s over-reliance on drones and not enough reliance on actual boots on the ground other than to use them as glorified photo-ops and pacification tools. In other words, as par, the US once again is involved in a conflict ... with one hand tied behind its back.
Accordingly, McChrystal’s behavior is more about the growing frustration and divisive nature of this Jack Squat Barry administration’s Afghanistan strategy...one that will NOT result in ‘a win’ nor ‘a victory’. The current growing chaos and deterioration in Afghanistan more than proves what I am saying/indicating. Hey, replacing/firing McChrystal is NOT going to change what is happening...it is going to take a major shift in this Jack Squat administration’s current strategy...
msnbc editor is still drunk.
AGREED.
We are better off with a UNITED States.
Not so sure about that.
I used to believe that a united states was required to fight the Soviets in the cold war. But now I think that the North and South would've clearly allied against the Soviets, and that NATO would've been just as strong with the USA+CSA+EUR as was USA+EUR---if not stronger.
I think the precedent was set by the Civil War that the states had no power to reign in Washington anymore, and thus, the progressives had a unique choke point to ram their garbage down our throats throughout the country.
I see very important parallels in the Arizona case to the civil war.
The Arizona law is an important exercise of local experimentation within a Republic. Local leaders are trying local solutions to a problem.
But Obama is trying to exert uniform power for their desired ends from DC by force.
Slavery was not sustainable in a Republic, and it would not have survived after the war.
But Lincoln pushed DC's power by force on the dissenting states, and that was that.
We’re just not going to agree on being united.
I just wanted to acknowledge your thoughtful reply. I stand on mt original comment.
Where we have fallen apart is getting away from Biblical principles and values. We’ve compromised on principles and opened the door to the garbage you and I both object to.
You see being divided as the answer and I see being united on what made us great to begin with. We need to all get back to what is right and blessed us as a nation.
“He’s a human being, and not a particularly pleasant representation of one.”
Actually, sounds like the kind of guy I’d like to work with and for.
ROTFL! "I'll give up the carpet just for you, Joey!"
Agreed. This, however, is really independent of national borders.
If Britain and France held onto their values, they'd be superior as well.
Further, I think the dense, secular, anonymous cities where people don't have any regard for the person in the next car they just cut off are incompatible with our founding principles and values.
The nature of a "Community Organizer" implies a disorganized community.
The LOCAL CHURCH was the founders' idea of a community organizer.
A rigid federal state doesn't allow rural and urban centers to find their own centers. It forces a least-common-donominator homogenization of society.
This must always mean that religious ideals are muted, and deviant behaviors are elevated in a society.
So a loose confederation of states must always be better than a large, rigid state.
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