“Robert Gates niminated McChrystal for the Afghanistan post. If that doesn’t say anything about McChyrstal’s politics, NOTHING will.”
FWIW, Gates was one of McChrystal’s strongest defenders during the very brief debate in the WH about whether he should stay or should go. Gates argued that sacking him would be really bad for military morale and the war effort in Afghanistan. In contrast, the political types in the WH were arguing he “had” to go (i.e., Obama’s letting him stay would make the CinC look bad/weak). Guess whose advise Obama followed!
Gates has also done nothing since zero was elected except be a useless idiot for the left . . . to the detriment of our armed services. I have less than zero respect for him. The fact that he "defended" McChrystal was just political - he pushed McC for the Afghanistan job and he needed to defend his decision so as not to look as stupid as he actually is.