“Grim” has the story. As is often (almost always) the case, it was a confluence of circumstances. But of course, Michael Yon warned us that something this might happen.
And really, with all due respect, you have to question the judgement of a general who claimed to have voted for Obama.
I KNEW there was a reason I didn’t trust the media. Yon is pretty sharp and knows many at the sharp end of the spear. I’m curious who thinks should replace him.
Maybe they didn’t want the job, in the end, or at least were sufficiently ambivalent about it that they didn’t mind getting fired for “speaking truth to power” instead of cravenly quitting.
Assume for the moment that they’re right, and Afghanistan is going to implode and Obamarama is going to go down as the most incompetent CinC since LBJ. If that is the case, then these guys are all going to be seen as having taken principled stands for the truth and they won’t be tarnished by having taken personal part in the debacle. The fact that some will see them as having technically broken faith by criticizing the President out loud is not going to be a significant tarnish on them, provided that history’s judgment is that their criticism was in fact spot on.
I think Oprompta has a problem. If he just lectures them sternly, he’s giong to seem like more of a pussy than he already does. If, on the other hand, he sacks the lot of them — where’s he going to get someone to jump in and take over right away? Who would want that job? Nobody good. Given that he’s up against a very tight deadline (of his own making) that says troops start coming home in 13 months, it seems impossible to avoid some kind of humiliating debacle. One he will try very hard to blame on Bush, but that’ll be tough deep in 2011, two and a half years after Bush left office.
My guess is that Obama will actually try to appeal to McChrystal’s vanity to stay, while accepting some public birching, so that if things go to hell, Obama has someone to blame. That bastard’s been no good since the Rolling Stone article, but we trusted him — and look what happened! Buncha racists.
For Obama, the key ingredient is always finding someone to blame. I think that will trump all his other considerations. The remaining question is: has he judged McChrystal’s vanity right? Will the general go back and take the fall, because he hopes against hope to pull off a miracle and thinks he can do it? We shall see.
…..and yet Rand you agree with his space policy? It’s your judgment therefore just as suspect? with a all due respect 🙂
It’s stupid to oppose a policy for no other reason than it came from someone with whom you otherwise disagree. Many people opposed the VSE because it was Bush’s policy. That was stupid, too. All policies should be considered on their own merits or lack thereof. The author should be considered only when it is unclear whether the policy is good or bad on its face.
I agree with Obamas Space policy, It’s probably the only thing I agree with him on. It does make me wonder how he got that right while messing up EVERYTHING else.
The whit cane rocket, the Wiggle stick or whatever you want to call Aries
was about as bad as I could imagine.
Obama’s space policy came from the Augustine Commission and possible from a desire to oppose anything associated with George W. Bush. Obama’s war policy (Iran and Afganistan) started out looking like it came from George Bush but now seems to have evolved into ‘try to look busy for a fue more month, then get out’.
I have to wonder if part of the reason McChrytal and his staff opened themselves up to Rolling Stone wasn’t the expectation that, as supporters of Obama, Rolling Stone would be a good place to generate support for the war effort. Counter insurgency requires patience and the ‘long-view’. But Rolling Stone could not overcome its own nature; like the scorpian in the old story, it had to use the stinger.