WASHINGTON – The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has been summoned to Washington to explain derogatory comments about President Barack Obama and his colleagues, administration officials said Tuesday. (Yahoo)Obama gets his Truman-MacArthur moment*
I know his advisors think he needs it to increase his stature, but to those who know history, it diminishes him further. Harry Truman was no effete metrosexual unfamiliar with basic military terms. He was a combat veteran of WW I, serving as an artillary Captain in France. But Obama is the president, as he so often reminds us.
McChrystal Earned It
He should have kept his mouth shut and his thoughts to himself. No military person should make those types of comments about civilian leadership and he knows that. Rolling Stone? What the hell was he thinking?
His comments sound arrogant, but they are borne of an arrogance produced by real-world success. Our US military is practically the only government institution that still knows how to get things done, and it has been getting a lot of things done over these past years.
It sometimes rankles and chafes to be overlorded by people in Gucci shoes, but that is how our system is set up and I wouldn't want it any other way. It is a classical separation of powers. Those who know how to prosecute war cannot authorize it, and those who authorize war do not know how to successfully carry one out.
General McChrystal Must Be Punished
Defending General McChrystal over this is defending the indefensible. I wish to hell he hadn't said what he said, but he did. Now he takes his lumps. If you love the constitution, you cannot protest the president firing the general. Fat head liberal pissants like Joe Klein are already howling.
* Harry Truman's Military Background
Truman enlisted in the Missouri Army National Guard in 1905, and served until 1911. At his physical in 1905, his eyesight had been an unacceptable 20/50 in the right eye and 20/40 in the left.[22] Reportedly, he passed by secretly memorizing the eye chart.[23]
Truman was chosen to be an officer, and then battery commander in an artillery regiment in France. His unit was Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, 60th Brigade, 35th Infantry Division, known for its discipline problems.[28]
During a sudden attack by the Germans in the Vosges Mountains, the battery started to disperse; Truman ordered them back into position using profanities that he had "learned while working on the Santa Fe railroad."[28] Shocked by the outburst, his men reassembled and followed him to safety. Under Captain Truman's command in France, the battery did not lose a single man.[28] H
On November 11, 1918 his artillery unit fired some of the last shots of World War I into German positions. The war was a transformative experience that brought out Truman's leadership qualities; he later rose to the rank of Colonel in the Army Reserves,[30] and his war record made possible his later political career in Missouri.[28] (Wikipedia)
As usual, Blackfive has the definitive take. Go read it here.
12 comments:
No need to defend McCrystal, he will be gone soon.
I would rather salute him.
I agree 100% with your assessment. He should resign. He knew. You do not get to be a general and be that ignorant. he was making his statement. either that or Rolling Stone made some of this up. I could go either way.
Whatever his personal feelings, and unfortunately Obama IS CINC. The Military does not get the liberty of badmouthing the administration in a public way like this.
The honorable thing to have done, if he felt this way would have been to resign and then speak out.
I think a few military resignations might be a good thing.
But to say this stuff in uniform, totally unforgivable.
I disagree. This general is a breath of fresh air considering some of the limp wristed, political, and reptilian flag officers I've worked with.
We in the military need to consider where our loyalties are - to the principles of our Republic, or a heel-clicking loyalty to whoever happens to be in power.
Yes, things are that bad. We have a domestic enemy of the Constitution in the oval office. There! I just committed a felony and I feel great.
Before you proclaim undying loyalty to the President, consider how long he took to see McChrystal - while our brave soldiers were being ground up in Afghanistan. Consider the mounting list of unconstitutional acts by this poser.
Here's my comments on Blackfive's take:
1. GEN McChrystal should never have said he voted for anyone. In fact, I know General Officers who claim they don't vote for Presidents at all to avoid ever taking political sides. He voted for Obama?!
Yes, admitting you voted for this Marxist is bad form. Very bad form.
2. GEN McChrystal fired a subordinate for giving the reporter access to the general (in essence, he did his job - albeit, naively).
The press is a two edged sword - I know from personal experience. Handle with care.
3. It is against the UCMJ to criticize the President, Congress, etc. Period.
Please! What level of bad behavior are you willing to tolerate and be silent?!! While the UCMJ is important, it's not my God, and I will speak the truth regardless. I encourage the officers / SNCOs who work for me to do the same.
4. This event is what the anti-war lefties want (we lost). This event is what the take-the-gloves-off right want (less ROE restrictions). However, this makes things in AFPAK infinitely more difficult.
Fine.
What we are experiencing is what banana republics have already been through - a civilian leadership completely corrupted and a military given a choice: go along and be corrupted, or stand up, tell the truth, and pay the price.
He definitely should have known better than to say the things he said of his Commander in Chief and staff, even if he feels strongly that his opinions are correct (as do many, many others!)
Kook is right, Gen. M. should have resigned immediately before he walked to the nearest microphone and got it all off his chest ...IMHO.
Too bad Republicans hate the Constitution and find contempt for the CinC to be beneficial when their guy's not in office...
What a stupid comment, Gene. Did you actually read the post and the comments afterward?
Hugh: mordant commentary as always. I do not think he should resign and I am not demanding he be fired. I just think that if Obama cans him constitutional conservatives really cannot protest. He serves at the pleasure of the president. You also know that the the star level is gets veddy veddy political.
There's a mental barricade here that needs to be shoved aside. It deals with worshipful obedience to the government.
Here's an excellent quote by Thomas Jefferson, a real President if there ever was one:
"A strict observation of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property, and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means." --Thomas Jefferson to John Colvin, 1810.
So therefore I don't feel bad about blaspheming Apollo Obama or supporting a warrior general like McChrystal who has the balls to tell it like it is.
The hour is late, and later than most know.
A good friend of mine, whom I would trust with my very life, used to work in SOCOM as a civilian advisor. He told me a story about a mid-1990's visit to his unit by an effeminate staffer from the Clinton administration. This staffer tried to convince the unit leadership to plan house to house gun confiscations; this staffer was told either leave base voluntarily, or he would be arrested on the spot.
Just recently I was asked by my leadership to comment on Joint Publication 3-28, Civil Support. It is a blueprint for low-level martial law. My comments, as you can imagine, were to the point and on the side of keeping military out of civil affairs.
The hour is later than you know.
Therefore I encourage all military members to speak up when they see things that violate the principles of our Republic, loyalty to the troops, or the Constitution.
“Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.” - Thomas Jefferson
Like it or not, right or wrong, at least Gen. McChrystal told the TRUTH, and that is a hell of a lot more then the Sissy Wimp-in-Chief has done since he has come upon the scene.
I agree he should not have said anything. He should respect the office (not this man) and keep his comments to himself. However, now that cat is out of bag, I imagine BO will give him option to resign on his own terms in order to keep him quiet for awhile. Lord knows what we would here if BO forced him out.
You can't handle the truth!
Yeah, Stan's gone. But he had one of the most God awful assignments ever given a commander: taking orders from a man-child.
Must have been similar to a general of a Roman legion having to listen to a 14-year old Ceasar lecture him.
He'll be gone. His next job, I hear, will be working for BP. I fear him being able to plug my damn hole far more than I thought BO ever could.
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