There's a lot of Merit to what Mike Yon wrote. However he is missing a very key piece to this whole situation:
McKiernan grew up as a tanker and as such, thinks as a tanker does - which is mostly Kinetic actions.
McCrystal, On the other hand, grew up as a Ranger/SF guy. COMPLETELY different mindset on how to conduct operations and targeting.
McKiernan did a superb job in Iraq back in 2002/2003 when significant force-on-force activities took place, and he did so with a hand tied behind his back (recall 4th ID and the Turkey debacle). This was conventional war.
He's now (or rather used to be) in Afghanistan - which is a completely different fight - mostly small unit action stuff and very Unconventional warfare. Not his kind of warfare.
With McCrystal in charge now, and oh by the way, he's be in Afghanistan before, it's his kind of fight. He knows the ground, the tactics and the threat. This is his kind of fight.
Consider this: you may well have a really good hammer, but you would not use a hammer to conduct surgery - you would use a scalpel.
Thanks for the perspective.
The theme here is the way McKiernan was treated for no apparent reason. He could have gotten something like a good award, ceremony, and another equivalent job, if not, a desk to hold down, even if early, this would be better than having to wear bus tire track marks for the rest of your life.
Everything I’ve heard is that McKiernan, tanker background aside, already WAS using small unit / dispersed / non-kinetic tactics. Shoot, the Army was strongly moving in that direction before I was there in 2007.