McChrystal was fired for two reasons. First, Obama is a weak president and he needs constant displays of power and prestige to make it look like he's strong. Whether it's finding asses to kick in the Gulf or ramming legislation through with just his party voting for it or, going back to the campaign, giving speeches in Berlin or Invesco, Obama is a little fellow. He brings no sense of gravitas with him, so it has to be procured and wrapped around him. McChrystal's outbursts were hardly new in the annals of military leaders, but the little Obama could not let them stand.
The second and most troubling reason McChrystal was fired was that Obama had no relationship with him. The general prosecuting the biggest of our wars and the commander in chief were, for all intents and purposes, strangers to each other. It took months for Obama to have his first meeting with the general and then it took months more for Obama to approve a fraction of the forces McChrystal had asked for. They weren't buddies, they weren't friends, they were distant coworkers. Had they been close, Obama could have brushed off the general's comments by saying in public, "Well, everyone knows Stan can be a real SOB sometimes, but he's our SOB. I'd rather have Stan shooting his mouth off and kicking Taliban ass than have anyone else leading the fight." After that, he could have read McChrystal the riot act in private. A strong president with a good relationship with his general could have done that. Instead, McChrystal was fired amidst pundits nodding their heads and sagely saying that he had to go.
Which leads me to wonder, just what is it that Obama does all day? If he's disconnected from the Afghan campaign and he's ignorant and detached from what's going on in the Gulf, just what does he do between breakfast and bed?
5 comments:
Early reports seem to indicate that the troops are happy
McChrystal was fired:
I got an email from a Marine this morning [Thursday]: 'Hey man, you did great work. All the guys in my company think it's good McChrystal is not there because he was putting or lives at risk."
Everyone seems to think highly of Petraeus, including CareBear. Since the two of them already have a working relationship, perhaps this will be an improvement all the way around.
It's like I said on Twitter: You don't talk trash about your boss, period. ESPECIALLY in the military. He got what was coming to him.
eeshice
The fact that the CW said that Obama must fire McChrystal to demonstrate strength is revealing and extemely troublesome.
How tight was Bush with Petraeus? Not a challenge, just a question.
I think it may have been a universal impossibility for a dandy like Obama to have anything approaching a "relationship" with a warrior of McChrystal's caliber.
Kelly, the problem with taking quotes like these is that this is all being played out in the press. I don't think anyone knows whether this was a good idea or not. Yesterday I read about Army officers hearing about McChrystal's firing and saying, "We are so screwed."
Dean, I think we're saying the same thing. I think Obama put himself in this jeopardy by not having a good relationship with McChrystal. One of the things McChrystal said to Rolling Stone was that Obama looked frightened of the folks in the Pentagon - like he was the novice and they were the experts, or something to that effect.
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