McChrystal is out

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Too bad we cannot fire Obama.
This is a sad day for the war effort in Afganistan.
 
McChrystal will remain silent for a while but he will finally tell his side of the story sooner or later. Adm. Mullen is a wuss so he fits right in with this DC crowd. USMC Gen. James Mattis is the next guy to get screwed by this bunch because he also speaks the truth no matter how inconvenient it may be. Ask a grunt if you really want to know what is going on over there. It's sort of hard to fight with one hand tied behind your back and they still kick butt.
 
I think that, as far as this issue is concerned, the comparison to Patton is apt. Patton, brilliant military leader that he was, was simply unable to control his mouth, and sometimes his temper. As a result, his usefulness was diminished b/c Eisenhower, Marshall, and Roosevelt couldn't tolerate his inappropriate remarks and outbursts. Patton is a good example that the Press will quote you to screw you. Someone in both Generals' position (and their staffs) have to show more discretion.
 
Korea, Vietnam, First Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan. They all have in common the conduct of the war being driven by domestic political considerations, resulting in the unnecessary loss of the lives of American service men and women.

The United States engaged in total war in World War II, and I think the ferocity and ruthlessness scared Americans. We were much less ferocious and unwilling to be ruthless in Korea and Vietnam, always trying to fight just hard enough to induce our opponents to come to the negotiating table, no matter how many more military and civilian lives were lost by prolonging things longer than necessary. Why didn't we finish Saddam in 1991? Why do we fight with one arm tied behind our backs today in Iraq and Afghanistan?

At some point military leaders are going to say no more, no more sending my men and women off to die for the Commander in Chief's poll numbers.
 
I can't imagine what the good general was thinking when he consented to give, much less what his thought processes were during the interview. He is not getting paid to do interviews with Rolling Stone magazine. Second guess and bad mouth your boss and see how that flies... and I suspect your job is tad less critical than his.

For those folks here who are not familiar with the chain of command and the concept of following orders this may all be a tad unclear. To a career military officer, much less a general with McCrystal's outstanding record there never was any ambiguity. He was wrong and he knows it. President Obama may not be your cup of tea but he is the CIC and has been tasked with a critical, extremely difficult job in Afghanistan. If this had happened on W's watch I'm sure he would have done the exact same thing....except most folks here would not be roasting him for it.
 
To me... it sounds like a clear case of conscious "suicide by Rolling Stone".
 
Looks to me like the career soldier didn't want to hang around and fail at war . . . so he chose to exit the battlefield via "shooting himself in the foot," and hope that historians would only blame Barry Soetoro for our terrible military and political policy in Afghanistan.

I doubt many of our military leaders truly respect Barry and his group of clowns . . . but it is very important for them to snap in line and blindly lead us into the abyss.

T.

PS: As a side-note, I imagine Jimmy Carter is quite proud of his younger protegee, Mr. Soetoro, and that Barry's wife has never felt prouder to be an American.
 
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Gordo1 said:
Too bad we cannot fire Obama.
Click to expand...
But we can fire him. Maybe not as quickly as we want to, but we can "refuse to renew his contract" in about 28 months. We can fire a bunch of his acolytes in about four months.

Capt Steve said:
For those folks here who are not familiar with the chain of command and the concept of following orders this may all be a tad unclear. To a career military officer, much less a general with McCrystal's outstanding record there never was any ambiguity. He was wrong and he knows it. President Obama may not be your cup of tea but he is the CIC and has been tasked with a critical, extremely difficult job in Afghanistan. If this had happened on W's watch I'm sure he would have done the exact same thing....except most folks here would not be roasting him for it.
Click to expand...

I have no military background, but I am a student (and a teacher) of history. McChrystal left Obama absolutely no choice but to relieve him. As far as I'm concerned, the proper way to look at this is not to say that Obama fired McChrystal, but that the Commander in Chief fired him.
 
Never speak out against the family...

godfather-2.jpg
 
Can someone explain to me how a magazine like Rolling Stone that caters to sex, drugs and rock and roll has enough influence to being down a 4 star general?
 
McCrystal was in a no-win situation with an incompetent boss but he is still responsible for himself and his staff. He had to go and has nobody to blame but himself. I hope he has the sense to leave with grace and dignity and spare our troops further harm.

Petraeus taking a demotion to assume direct command of an impossible mission is stunning...12 months max and he'll be out too.

Bob
 
Capt Steve said:
I can't imagine what the good general was thinking when he consented to give, much less what his thought processes were during the interview. He is not getting paid to do interviews with Rolling Stone magazine. Second guess and bad mouth your boss and see how that flies... and I suspect your job is tad less critical than his.

For those folks here who are not familiar with the chain of command and the concept of following orders this may all be a tad unclear. To a career military officer, much less a general with McCrystal's outstanding record there never was any ambiguity. He was wrong and he knows it. President Obama may not be your cup of tea but he is the CIC and has been tasked with a critical, extremely difficult job in Afghanistan. If this had happened on W's watch I'm sure he would have done the exact same thing....except most folks here would not be roasting him for it.
Click to expand...
I have to agree.
To expand a bit on the chain of command:
It is a simple system.
One takes orders from those above him in the chain.
One gives orders to those below him.
One is never offered the option of critiquing those orders, nor the giver of those orders. If a general had that option, so would every jarhead rifleman. How well would that work?
How much guff would you expect this general to take from his subordinates?
"Respect the rank, if not the man"



tom turner said:
Looks to me like the career soldier didn't want to hang around and fail at war . . . so he chose to exit the battlefield via "shooting himself in the foot," and hope that historians would only blame Barry Soetoro for our terrible military and political policy in Afghanistan.
Click to expand...
You may be right. He knew the consequences. Perhaps he has a good offer from the CIA. Interesting that he voted for Obama.



McC seems to have built a life around being the "unpredictable bad boy", while fully always knowing what he was doing.
There also seems to be a good portion of politician mixed into his super soldier persona.

If the infighting continues in public, the tragedy is what it does to morale for the troops in the zone.

From here on, I doubt this thread will contain much beyond O bashing, so we're done here.
 
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