Breaking: Joe Klein on CNN just said McChrystal has submitted his resignation!

CNN Blitzer interview | Tuesday, June 22, 2010 | DGHoodini

[greyfoxx39]

Good. After bammy accepts it, McChrystal can speak freely. I am very interested in what he has to say.

I wonder if McChristal will join Oathkeepers?

[jokar]

find artical http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236

[Eleutheria5]

Most likely. Now Obama will simply study the resignation, then study possible replacements, then study his studies, then study those studies of studies, then accept, then study possible replacements, then run for reelection and lose.

[SkyPilot]

The military members in Afghanistan won't miss him one bit.

He was a 1st class jerk, and his Rules of Engagement (ROE) were a joke. They got people killed.

His banning of the little creature comforts from home the troops had (i.e. Burger King, Pizza Hut) was petty, stupid, and out of line.

He had a staff of "yes boss" synchophants who worshiped him - which is dangerous and wrong. I have seen flag officers who surround themselves with courtiers, and it is literally a lethal combination (lethal for the front line folks that is).

He also told Rolling Stone that he was a proud Obama voter.

Good riddance. I agree with a retired 3 star general who knew McChrystal - and said he was surprised it took this long for McChrystal to implode.

[US_MilitaryRules]

Beginning to look like el 0 should fire him! Seeing how he voted for the loser.

[alarm rider]

“He had a staff of “yes boss” synchophants who worshiped him - which is dangerous and wrong. I have seen flag officers who surround themselves with courtiers, and it is literally a lethal combination (lethal for the front line folks that is)”.

Exactly. I worked around some general officers, and their cadre of butt kissing yes men and women was insane. The down side of being a butt kissing officer is that if you hitch yourself to the stars, and if the stars go down, so do you in most cases.

In a way, it’s justice. If a general officer cannot tell the real from the adoration of “I am here for my career, and I will do or say anything to help that along”, then he or she is lost. I sort of know what those O-6 and below are thinking right now, and I have no sympathy for them or for McChrystal. The best officers were always and still those that understood the troops and acted accordingly.

[Robert Lomax]

If he did indeed vote for Obama, as he has supposedly admitted, then I question his judgement. If he’s lying about it, then I question his integrity.

[Travis McGee]

I have an odd read on this. McChrytal is a brilliant mind, but he’s a messiah of this “Peace Corps Special Forces” school. Don’t shoot. Take a bullet, but don’t shoot. To this end, he surrounded him with like-minded men, mainly also also True Believers in the New COIN.

So this philosophy relates to his “trusting” the RS reporter. He believes he can WIN OVER the reporter, by showing how open, unrestricted, peace-corps-ish, great guys we are. Then the reporter will understand us, and he will want to help us, and h will write an overall favorable article.

IOW, McCrystal is a hopeless naif in this situation, and thus probably also in his “war of hearts” for the Afghan people against the Taliban.

Which since the other side knows darn well we’ll be GONE in 4 or 5 years max, all they have to do is keep up a little bleeding of American troops and wait us out.

ALso knowing that the Taliban will outlast the Americans, only foolish Afghans will help the Americans, and risk later Viet-Cong type night visits or worse later. Beheading for starts.

[b4its2late]

Let the fun begin.

[Travis McGee]

Amen X 1,000. You truly “get it.” It’s refreshing to see such clear thinking about a special realm few Americans can imagine.

Yes men are poison to flag rank officers, but few can resist them when they are SO darn good at subtle sub-rosa flattery that is not even recognized as such.

It takes a sterner heart to deliberately put men under him who will respectfully disagree and say so.

[Travis McGee]

What’s your take on 228?

[BlessingsofLiberty]

I just have one thing to say about this. I am not going to defend McChrystal because someone that would vote for Obama or Hillary isn’t the brightest bulb out there.

Loose Lips Sink Ships

[zzeeman]

Excellent points, all of them. Not an “odd” read at all, IMO.

[Jim W N]

McChrystal 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.

[alarm rider]

Travis,

Not an odd read. If you recall general officers like Powell you have the type.

General officers like Powell learned the game in a different set of circumstances. When it came down to being a soldier, he deferred to his instinct to be a political general first and foremost, then to pander to whatever side he thought looked the best in the long run. Powell as I understand it also played the race card to get his way.

McChrystal is a different animal, and your assessment of his “ability” to win over any reporter tells me that he had a staff guy whispering in his ear that he could do no wrong. In effect, he started to believe his own press.

In my experience, general officers who do not do a self analysis ever so often tend to believe that they are as great and monumental as their staff officers tell them they are.

The Romans employed people to tell the generals as they paraded their war prizes that “All glory is fleeting”, and so it is true.

On the positive side, if the stuff really hits the fan, history tells us that men will rise to the occasion, not men like McChrystal, not men like Powell, not men like Shinseki, but men like Patton.

Just my take.

Regards,
AR

[PA-RIVER]

Dear Barack Mohammed

Take this job and shove it up your Kenyan born hole..... I dont work here anymore.

[penelopesire]

My bet is on the later...20 something groupie speechwriter is hung over from playing beer pong.

[maica]

So this philosophy relates to his “trusting” the RS reporter. He believes he can WIN OVER the reporter, by showing how open, unrestricted, peace-corps-ish, great guys we are. Then the reporter will understand us, and he will want to help us, and he will write an overall favorable article.

@@@@@

1) This philosophy could also explain how he could cast a vote for Obama.

2) Taking a reporter on a pub night with his senior staff has to be the stupidest thing he ever did.

[Palladin]

Very good!

[1010RD]

McChrystal's new marching orders have caused an intense backlash among his own troops. Being told to hold their fire, soldiers complain, puts them in greater danger. "Bottom line?" says a former Special Forces operator who has spent years in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I would love to kick McChrystal in the nuts. His rules of engagement put soldiers' lives in even greater danger. Every real soldier will tell you the same thing."...

But they are especially angered by Ingram's death. His commanders had repeatedly requested permission to tear down the house where Ingram was killed, noting that it was often used as a combat position by the Taliban. But due to McChrystal's new restrictions to avoid upsetting civilians, the request had been denied. "These were abandoned houses," fumes Staff Sgt. Kennith Hicks. "Nobody was coming back to live in them."

If this is good for McChrystal, what would bad look like?

Cui Bono?