McChrystal

The Miami Herald says that McChrystal out; Petraeus picked for Afghanistan.

I’ve seen a lot of people comparing this to the Truman/MacArthur episode, and they are wrong. Jim DeRosa correctly identifies this as President Obama’s ‘Lincoln /McClellan’ Moment.

MacArthur wasn’t simply bad-mouthing Harry Truman, he was actively working at cross-purposes to Truman’s policy. It was insubordination in its worse form.

Obama adopted McChrystal’s concept and was providing him with everything required to carry it out. Like Lincoln, Obama assumed that the general knew what he was doing and supported him. Like McClellan, when things didn’t succeed as anticipated, McChrystal began blaming everyone but himself.

If McChrystal bothered to read his plan he would have known that it requires coordination with all of the parties involved. Everyone else seemed to be attempting to keep McChrystal apprised of what they were doing, and were looking for feedback on how their activities were affecting the overall plan, while McChrystal acted like they were bothering him.

McChrystal’s plan required someone like Eisenhower, not Patton, and McChrystal wanted to be Patton.

In order to “maintain good order and discipline” and to preserve whatever hope of success there is for the McChrystal plan, McChrystal had to go. There was no other option. Even with his exit, there is no guarantee that NATO countries will be willing to remain in Afghanistan after reading the Rolling Stone article.

For people who have never been associated with the military, if a general’s staff is making stupid comments to outsiders, they are saying what the general says. That a general’s staff talks to outsiders is a very bad thing, in military terms. Now would be a very good time for McChrystal’s staff to apply for retirement, if they have their time in.