General Stanley McChrystal might get fired

[Effluo]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/22...-developments/

Looks like he submitted his resignation according to TIME and CCN

Well, that didn't take long...

[Correction]

He says he did, there's no way to verify that. Read the article and tell me he wasn't a Bush butt buddy

Biden's Afghanistan strategy was to minimize troop deployment, avoid all nation building and rely on unmanned drone strikes in Pakistan.

These are all Rumsfeld strategies, as well. There are no good guys in this scenario, simply more scapegoating.

[Kuya]

As far as i recall, since Vietnam, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have felt that it's the civilian part of the DoD and the State Department that have held the military back. McChrystal's opinion that the "wimps in the White House" are the reason the war hasn't suceeded is not uncommon.

I always wondered whether a conflict between the White House and the Joint Chiefs of Staff would ever be at the heart of a crisis.

[archibaldcrane]

John Rambo would've won Vietnam if the pussies hadn't pulled him out.

[Kael]

Didn't John Rambo retroactively win Vietnam in Rambo 2?

[*Shinzon*]

As far as i recall, since Vietnam, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have felt that it's the civilian part of the DoD and the State Department that have held the military back. McChrystal's opinion that the "wimps in the White House" are the reason the war hasn't suceeded is not uncommon.

I always wondered whether a conflict between the White House and the Joint Chiefs of Staff would ever be at the heart of a crisis.

I don't think it'll ever get to the point where it's all of the military on one side and the White house on the other. But like anything else it's a main reason why we are so ineffective when implementing shit. The white house gives orders but the Joint chiefs apply them with their own interpretation on how to implement.

[Rhinox]

What a joke

While you guys are right that there is a history of Big Ego generals in the past. The difference between This asshole and MacArthur is the latter was actually accomplished and had more credibility with the American people and quite frankly the world then this jackass.

Good riddance.

Never liked this guy in the first place.

[Talint]

From a political angle, even the republicans don't want to play partisan politics on this:

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), along with 2 colleagues, says comments attributed to Gen. Stanley McChrystal in a new story in Rolling Stone are "inappropriate" and cross a line in the traditional relationship between a president and the military.

"We have the highest respect for General McChrystal and honor his brave service and sacrifice to our nation. General McChrystal's comments, as reported in Rolling Stone, are inappropriate and inconsistent with the traditional relationship between Commander-in-Chief and the military," McCain said in a joint statement with Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

Guy fucked up something fierce. I wonder what the Tea Party will say?

[Rhinox]

Gen. McChrystal will be painted as a victim and this would be used as another club to bash Obama with.

that being said

Obama is gonna use this as a political tool. Tomorrow there will be a big press conference in which Obama publicly forgives him and McChrystal will speak and publicly apologize to the president the military and the American people for his comments.


book it

[Cephius]

I don't see how anyone could defend him, as the military guys have already stated in this thread, he did something that someone in the armed forces simply doesn't do.

Obama is gonna use this as a political tool. Tomorrow there will be a big press conference in which Obama publicly forgives him and McChrystal will speak and publicly apologize to the president the military and the American people for his comments.

So you think he's going to decline his resignation? Or accept it and forgive him (which won't mean much).

I wonder if he'll accept it, and who he'll appoint to lead the Afghanistan war in his place.

[Correction]

Best part is when the resignation is followed by a multi-million dollar book deal about how embarrassingly bad the war in Afghanistan is being run.

Firing him sure is going to send a message!

[Cephius]

Best part is when the resignation is followed by a multi-million dollar book deal about how embarrassingly bad the war in Afghanistan is being run.

Firing him sure is going to send a message!

That wouldn't make much sense, since it was his idea to implement the COIN strategy in Afghanistan, and his rules of engagement that our troops there hate so much. Him bitching about how the war was run would make zero sense. Obama kept him there, and gave him the troops he asked for to implement his strategy. For all intents and purposes, he was the one running it.

[Correction]

Obama kept him there, and gave him the troops he asked for to implement his strategy. For all intents and purposes, he was the one running it.

He could argue that he was never properly trusted to run the war, since Obama introduced a significant delay between the submission of the report asking for thousands of troops and the actual deployment. Either you trust the guy to properly estimate the force required or you don't. It was a nasty bit of double-dealing that says a lot about our CINC's ability to run wars.

[Cephius]

I dunno, I remember when Bush did the Iraq surge, there was a similar delay and a lot of debate on it's proposed effectiveness. The number of troops required fluctuated daily iirc, and that was for Petraeus who is clearly much more widely respected than McChrystal was/is. These things always have political capital associated with them, I don't think anyone would buy the "it shows he didn't trust me!" argument when the same thing happened just a few years ago to a guy who is now the US Central Commander.

And again, judging from the article, he had every authority to run the war the way he wanted it. Obama may have quarreled with him about the troop surge, but he didn't stop him from executing his strategy.

[Plow]

It's Rolling Stone magazine.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2hygHu8CI

[Shuvo]

Lol I remember thinking this guy was dangerous way back when he was playing politics to get the 30,000 troop surge (with the "leaked" memos). Obama should have canned him then and there.

[FNH]

Sure the guy shouldn't have mishandled the chain of command, but is this good for that supposed transparency of the administration we were promised?

[Rhinox]

Remy, You might want invest in a dictionary Jesus fucking Christ

This has nothing to do with transparency

[Xno Kappa]

The Tea Party will think "durrr he's entitled to his free speeches!"

[ringthree]

As far as i recall, since Vietnam, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have felt that it's the civilian part of the DoD and the State Department that have held the military back. McChrystal's opinion that the "wimps in the White House" are the reason the war hasn't suceeded is not uncommon.

I always wondered whether a conflict between the White House and the Joint Chiefs of Staff would ever be at the heart of a crisis.

Civilian/Military conflict didn't start in Vietnam. It goes all the way back to the beginning of the country.